No less than 9 European co-productions screening at Berlinale 2015 are supported by Eurimages programme. 4 films in Official Competition (3 of them Balkan co-productions): The festival opening Nobody Wants the Night by Isabel Coixet (Spain/France/Bulgaria, 2015), Aferim! by Radu Jude (Romania/Bulgaria/Czech Republic, 2015), Sworn Virgin by Laura Bispuri (Italy/Switzerland/Germany/Albania/Kosovo*, 2015) and Wim Wenders’ latest Every Thing Will Be Fine (Germany/Norway/Sweden/Canada, 2015). In the Panorama section, Tudor Giurgiu’s Why me? (Romania/Bulgaria/Hungary, 2015), The Summer of Sangaile by Alanté Kavaïté (Lithuania/France/Netherlands, 2015) and the documentary A German Youth by Jean-Gabriel Périot (France/ Switzerland, 2015). Last, Until I Lose My Breath by Emine Emel Balci (Turkey/Germany, 2015) and Virgin Mountain by Dagur Kári (Island/Denmark, 2015), both screened at the Forum section.

EU’s supporting programme, will be present at Berlinale 2015 in another form also. Following the success of the Eurimages Co-Production Development Prize awarded within the co-production markets of Rotterdam (CineMart), Sarajevo (CineLink), Rome (New Cinema Network), Copenhagen (CPH:FORUM) and Amsterdam (CineKid) film festivals, Eurimages’ Board of Management has decided to create a new Eurimages Co-production Development Award in Berlin. 

This award, a cash prize of €20,000, will be given during the Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 8-10, 2015). This event which brings the producers of 25 pre-selected projects together with possible co-production and financing partners perfectly meets the objective of the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award which has been created to promote the Fund’s role in encouraging European coproduction from the initial stages of a project.

To be eligible, projects must participate in the Official Selection of the Berlinale Co-Production Market and be designed from the outset as a European co-production intended for cinema release between at least two member states of the Eurimages Fund for reasons other than purely financial. 

The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award will be awarded on the basis of the project’s artistic quality and its prospects of remaining a European co-production. The award, which takes the form of a non-reimbursable subsidy, will be used by the beneficiary exclusively for the purposes of meeting the development expenses of the project. 

The prize will be awarded for the first time at the forthcoming Berlinale Co-Production Market of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival (February 5 – 15, 2015). It will complement the already established awards at the Berlinale Co-Production Market: the ARTE International Prize and the VFF Highlight Pitch Award. The overall selection of the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2015 will be announced soon.

Another element of the reinforced collaboration between Eurimages and the Berlinale Co-Production Market is that the winner of the recently-granted Co-Production Award– Prix Eurimages - which each year goes to a renowned European producer with extensive co-production experience - is invited to participate in the Berlinale Co-Production Market’s Company Matching Programme. Here, five companies from around the globe attend without a specific project but rather in their capacity as experienced coproducers with interesting company structures. This year’s winner of the Prix Eurimages, Ed Guiney with his Irish company Element Pictures, has already confirmed his attendance in 2015.