Romanian films produced from ScripTeast:
Japanese Dog / Câinele japonez, written by Ioan Antoci, directed by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, produced by Libra Films
Romanian scripts selected for ScripTeast:
Bachelor Hour by Ioana Joca and Jean Lorin Sterian - 2nd edition, 2007/2008
AZC by Ileana Stănculescu – 3rd edition, 2008/2009
Japanese Dog by Ioan Antoci – 3rd edition, 2008/2009. Awarded with Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award
Breaking News by Ana Agopian & Iulia Rugină – 4th edition, 2009/2010
Beyond All Words by Alexandra M. Păun – 5th edition, 2010/2011
0/1 by George Dorobanțu – 6th edition, 2011/2012. ScripTeast Special Mention
Black Maria by Adi Voicu – 7th edition, 2012/2013
Viking Line Story by Xandra Popescu – 7th edition, 2012/2013
Life Beats Reality by Andreea Vălean – 8th edition, 2013/2014. ScripTeast Special Mention
Glebe by Ioan Antoci – 9th edition, 2014/2015
Marita by Christian Gabriel Iftime & Anca Buja - 9th edition, 2014/2015
Golden Ashes by Adina Sădeanu – 10th edition, 2015/2016
Interview with Tudor Giurgiu, producer (Libra Films)
By FNE Staff
FNE: What was the most important development in your national cinema in 2015?
Tudor Giurgiu: There were zero developments. Status quo at the Film Fund, no strategy regarding attracting more financing sources for the Fund or changing rules about supporting minority coproductions. Film Center was unable to organize a single session for supporting film production, so 2015 was a horrible year. Maybe the only good thing is the increased number of good independent low budget feature films, made by debut film directors.
FNE: Why is ScripTeast important for your country and how do you evaluate its activity so far?
Tudor Giurgiu: I’m very positive about the opportunity offered by ScripTeast for the process of development of our films. There is no professional script lab in Romania so an initiative like ScripTeast is really valuable for any producer or scriptwriter in the region. I cannot evaluate its entire activity up to now, but I am happy that a couple of Romanian scripts were improved due to ScripTeast participation, and the authors were very happy about the experience.
FNE: How important is for a producer to produce a film based on a script participating in ScripTeast?
Tudor Giurgiu: Any producer would be happy to work on a script which was professionally developed. ScripTeast participation is like a quality stamp for any script. We were very happy to produce Japanese Dog, a script which won the annual Krzysztof Kieslowski award, and we were very thankful for the work performed by Ioan Antoci, the writer, together with his tutors and experts.
FNE: Do you see ScripTeast as a validation for the quality of a script?
Tudor Giurgiu: I think ScripTeast participation is not validating automatically the quality of the script, but it offers the guarantee of a serious work performed during many months of developing a feature film script. Any evaluation is subjective and personal so I’d say I am very much curious to read and assess any script which participated in this programme. Before anything else.
Interview with Ioan Antoci, Winner of the Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award 2009
By FNE Staff
FNE: What is your most vivid memory from ScripTeast?
Ioan Antoci: I'm waiting. It's a sunny day in Cannes, Plage des Palmes. Together with my fellow scriptwriters and now friends, we are waiting. They will announce it soon. But my thoughts are in Sterdyn, Poland, where it all begun. And that call from Violetta (Violetta Kaminska), back in last September. It was my first phone call in another language than mine. "Ioan Antoci, you have been selected..."
An elbow on my arm and a whisper: "They are calling you onto the stage", stops my melancholic journey. What? My name? I stepped; one small step for the screenwriting world, a big leap for me. Old worlds collapse, new ones arise. I see colors: blue for the sea, red because of my blood pressure and white as in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s trophy. A small Japanese dog toy and an old man smile at me from the inside of my imagination.
FNE: How important it was for you to participate? Does winning make a big difference?
Ioan Antoci: Before ScripTeast, I was just a film buff. After it, I became a screenwriter; a beginner, of course, but a writer nonetheless.
FNE: What was the most important advice you received at ScripTeast?
Ioan Antoci: Everything has a beginning, a middle and an ending. But, above these, trust your story, your characters and their emotions. They will tell you how to write the beginning, the middle and the end.
FNE: In which ways is ScripTeast different from other script development workshops?
Ioan Antoci: In a few words, ScripTeast delivers what it promises. And a little more. You have to be in ScripTeast to discover that little more.
FNE: What are you working on now?
Ioan Antoci: Right now I’m still working with my characters, their emotions and their stories. Trying to figure out the best beginning, middle and end for them. As for me, the beginning was so great, that I’m fighting not to sag in the middle.
