Awards Presented for Work in Progress Industry Programme
On Wednesday 22 July at the Arena, the awards of the Work in Progress Industry Programme of the 68th Pula Film Festival were presented. Work in Progress is a programme for film professionals that took place under a different concept this year, and for the first time eligible projects were not only those in Croatian Film, but also Croatian Minority Co-productions and International Programme. Project presentations were given by directors, producers, or co-producers at Valli Cinema in the afternoon, in English, which is another novelty this year. The presentations also included clips from the films of up to five minutes. The best project was selected by the international jury composed of Vanja Kaluđerčić, director of International Film Festival Rotterdam, Simon Perry, producer with more than 35 years of experience in film industry, and Xavier Henry-Rashid, founder of Film Republic, a London based film sales agency specialising in world cinema and feature documentary films.
The prizes, which amount to a total of 150,000 HRK were presented to young filmmakers by jury members Simon Perry and Xavier Henry-Rashid. The prize from the Slovenian studio Teleking, picture and sound processing in the amount of 3,000 EUR, goes to the project The Glory of Emptiness directed by Jasmin Duraković, produced by UG Scena (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia). The prize was presented to producer Amira Kudumović, who thanked the audience and added it is the audiences that they make film for in the first place. The 50,000 HRK prize by Crodux goes to the project Traces, directed by Dubravka Turić, produced by Kinorama (Croatia, Latvia, Serbia). The prize was presented to the director, who emphasised the importance of programmes like Work in Progress and added that the prize will mean a lot to this project. The prize by the Czech studio Sleepwalker, audio processing in the amount of 12,000 EUR, goes to M, directed by Vardan Tozija, produced by Focus Pocus Films (North Macedonia, Croatia, Kosovo, France). The prize was presented to producer Darko Popov, who said the film crew more than needed this prize and added he hopes they will be able to have the film be screened on the big screen at the Arena.
This year, the competition programme included a total of 10 projects. In the category of Croatian film, these were Dejavu, directed by Nevio Marasović, produced by ŠVENK (Croatia), Sixth Bus, directed by Eduard Galić, produced by MISSART (Croatia), Carbide, directed by Josip Žuvan, produced by MAXIMA FILM (Croatia, Serbia), Do Pigs Go to Heaven?, directed by Goran Dukić, produced by ŠVENK (Croatia, North Macedonia), and Traces, directed by Dubravk Turić, produced by KINORAMA (Croatia, Latvia, Serbia). In the category of Minority Croatian Co-productions in the International Programme, these were the projects The Beanie, directed by Slobodan Maksimović, produced by SENCA STUDIO (Slovenia, Luxembourg, Croatia, Slovakia), How I Learned To Fly, directed by Radivoje Andrić, produced by SENSE PRODUCTION (Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria), M, directed by Vardan Tozija, produced by FOCUS POCUS FILMS (North Macedonia, Croatia, Kosovo, France), The Glory of Emptiness, directed by Jasmin Duraković, produced by UG SCENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia), Sixth Bus, directed by Eduard Galić, produced by MISSART (Croatia), and Trail of the Beast, directed by Nenad Pavlović, produced by REŽIM (Serbia, Croatia).
Congratulations to all the winners!
