Wishing on a star, an Italian, Austrian, Slovak documentary directed by Peter Kerekes, is the winner of the seventh edition of When East Meets West. The project tells the story of a peculiar astrologist who offers to her clients a simple, but effective way, to change their destiny by taking a trip, often to remote places, on the day of their birthday. Wishing on a star was honoured with the CNC Development Award (5.000 EUR cash prize) as the best of the 22 projects in competition by an international jury of experts consisting of Matthieu Darras (TorinoFilmLab), Marge Liiske (Industry@Tallinn/Baltic Event), Nikolaj Nikitin (SOFA – School of Film Agents), Kristina Trapp (EAVE) and Marie Pierre Valle (Wild Bunch).
A grant for the participation in the EAVE European Producers Workshop goes to Austrian producer David Bohun (Mischief Film), whilst the Flow Postproduction Award, prize of 10.000 EUR in post-production facilities, goes to the Turkish project Zuhal produced by Anna Maria Aslanoglu (Istos Film) and directed by Nazli Elif Durlu. The TRL Espresso, automatic selection for MIA - New Cinema Network co-production market and also the Film London PFM in October 2017, goes to the Swedish project Madame Luna produced by David Herdies and Vicky Miha (Momento Film) and the Producers Network prize was awarded to the Georgian producer Tekla Machavariani (with the project Before Father is Back) and the Italian producer Cecilia Frugiuele (with the project Alfa). EWA Network Best Woman Director Award went to Michela Occhipinti, director of the Italian project Flesh Out.
Finally, an international jury composed by Rudy Buttignol (Knowledge Network), Catherine Le Clef (CAT&Docs) and Claudia Schreiner (MDR), has delivered the HBO Europe Award – in the work in progress section Last Stop Trieste – to the Serbian film In Praise of Nothing by Boris Mitic and the Flow Digital Cinema Award to the Polish documentary The Runners by Łukasz Borowski.
The seventh edition of WEMW ends with a series of impressive numbers: almost 300 submissions, over 40 different countries represented, 200 international decision makers, 400 registered participants and more than 500 one-to-one meetings.
WEMW is organized by the FVG Audiovisual Fund together with the Trieste Film Festival, in collaboration with EAVE, Maia Workshops, Creative Europe Desk Italy, EURIMAGES, and the support of Creative Europe/MEDIA Programme, MiBACT - Direzione Generale per il Cinema, CEI - Central European Initiative and the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The 2017 focus is realized thanks to the support of CNC - Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Estonian Film Institute, Lithuanian Film Centre and National Film Centre of Latvia, and the cooperation of the Creative Europe Desks of Estonia, France, Latvia and Lithuania.
