BERLINALE RESIDENCY LAUNCHES SECOND ROUND

The international Berlinale Residency fellowship programme is inviting six filmmakers with their latest film projects to Berlin from August 15 to November 15, 2013, so they can finalise their screenplays, and develop production and distribution strategies. An international jury – consisting of Clare Binns, (Director of Programming and Acquisitions at City Screen , Great Britain ), producer Cedomir Kolar (Asap Film , France ) and Thomas Hailer (Berlinale Programme Manager, Germany ) – has chosen six directors and their projects.

Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick comments: “With the Berlinale Residency, the Berlinale has successfully expanded its programme to promote filmmakers. I’m delighted that in the initiative’s second year we’ll again be supporting international directing talents in developing their new projects.”

Berlinale Residency participants 2013:

Emir Baigazin , Kazakhstan : The Wounded Angel

Producer: Beibit Muslimov, Kazakhfilm Studios, Kazakhstan

Born in Kazakhstan in 1984, Emir Baigazin studied film and television directing at the Kazakh National Academy of Arts. In 2007 he participated in the Asian Film Academy in Busan. He is also an alumnus of the 2008 Berlinale Talent Campus. Baigazin’s debut feature film, Harmony Lessons, was supported by the World Cinema Fund and celebrated its premiere in the Berlinale Competition 2013, where it won a Silver Bear for an Outstanding Artistic Contribution. The film was considered an extraordinary discovery and is now travelling the international festival circuit.

Bence Fliegauf, Hungary: Glowing Wormhole

Producer: Bence Fliegauf, Fraktál Film , Hungary

Hungarian filmmaker Bence Fliegauf’s debut feature film Forest premiered in the Berlinale Forum in 2003. One year later, Dealer (2004) garnered him over 20 awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize at the Mar del Plata Film Festival. He won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival for Milky Way in 2007. His first English-language movie, Womb, was screened in Locarno and Toronto . The Berlinale Competition 2012 presented Fliegauf’s latest film, Just the Wind, which received the Jury Grand Prix and went on to be screened at many other film festivals.

Alistair Banks Griffin , USA : Therese (working title)

Producer: Eric Overmyer, USA

Alistair Banks Griffin was born in 1978 in England and raised in New Orleans . He received his BA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Griffin ’s short film Gauge (2008) premiered at the New York Film Festival. In 2009 he was the recipient of a Cinereach grant for his first feature film, Two Gates of Sleep, which premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and then won the New Talent Grand PIX Award at CPH:PIX in Copenhagen in 2011. The film has screened at numerous international festivals and museums.

Sebastián Lelio, Chile: Greeting to the Sun

Producer: Juan de Dios Larraín, Fábula , Chile

Born in Chile in 1974, Sebastián Lelio graduated from the Escuela de Cine de Chile . In 2006, he completed his first film, La Sagrada Familia, which received many awards and international recognition. His second film, Navidad, made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. El Año del Tigre, his third feature film, was released in the international competition of the Locarno Film Festival in 2011. His latest film, Gloria, premiered in theCompetition of the Berlinale in 2013, where it was highly acclaimed by the critics and the audience, and took home a Silver Bear for Best Actress.

Elina Psykou, Greece: Ivo & Sofia

Producer: Giorgos Karnavas, Heretic , Greece

Born in 1977 in Greece , Elina Psykou studied film directing at the Lykourgos Stavrakos Film School and sociology at Panteion University , both in Athens . She went on to study cultural history at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris . In 2007 she participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus. She has written and directed two short films, Sunday Trip (2004) and Summer Holidays (2006). Psykou’s first fictional feature film, The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas, won the Best Work in Progress award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; the film had its world premiere in the Berlinale Forum in 2013.

José Luis Valle, Mexico : Operation Baby

Producer: José Luis Valle, Caverna Cine , Mexico

Born in El Salvador , José Luis Valle became a citizen of Mexico , where he studied literature and film. His short film Chimera won the Kodak Film School Competition and received an Honorary Mention at the Guadalajara International Film Festival in 2006. His documentary The Pope’s Miraclescreened at the Locarno Film Festival in 2009. Valle’s first fictional feature, Workers, received support from the World Cinema Fund, premiered in the Berlinale Panorama in 2013, and won the Mezcal Prize for the best Mexican entry at the 28th Guadalajara International Film Festival.

Kirsten Niehuus, Managing Director of Film Funding at the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, states: “Alongside our other artist-in-residence initiatives, the Berlinale Residency represents the successful continuation of our Berlin 24/7 programme. Together with the Berlinale and the Nipkow Programme, we wish the six filmmakers a creative and inspiring time in the metropolitan area of the capital.”

The Berlinale Residency directors will stay in Berlin from August 15 to November 15, 2013. With script consultants from the Nipkow Programme and other experts from the industry, they will finalise their screenplays. In a workshop towards the end of the Residency, their producers will also receive concrete feedback from experienced industry professionals and assistance in preparing the projects for the international market. In February 2014, the filmmakers will return to Berlin so they can present their projects with their producers to potential co-producers and financers at the Berlinale Co-Production Market. A number of the participants will also be given the opportunity to present their works at the Ibero-American Co-Production Meeting in Guadalajara in March 2014.

The Berlinale Residency is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, the Nipkow Programme and the Guadalajara International Film Festival, in cooperation with the MEDIA Mundus programme of the European Union and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

The Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg supports the Berlinale Residency within the scope of its Berlin 24/7 programme, which offers work fellowships in the German capital to international filmmakers.

Berlinale Press Office

June 12, 2013