Maciej Sobieszczański has many international awards to his name, including the Think: The Award at Berlinale 2015. His last film, THE RECONCILIATION, received an award in the First Look section of the Locarno International Film Festival and for best directing at the Montreal IFF in 2017.
The winning script is an emotive study of a sibling relationship under immense strain. According to the Artistic Board, which determines the winner of the Award, the winning script "stood apart as a work of exceptional emotional impact, depicting the realistic and universal story of one family's dramatic struggles. Caught between divided loyalties at home, the main character must come to terms with the disappointment of first love and his hopes for a better life."
The members of the Artistic Board who chose the best script of the 14th edition of ScripTeast, are renowned filmmakers with many years of experience: Doreen Boonekamp (former head of the Dutch Film Fund), Sandy Lieberson (long-time head of 20th Century Fox), Antonio Saura (producer and head of the sales agency Latido), Manfred Schmidt (former head of one of the most significant German film funds, MDM), Simon Perry (former head of ACE - European Producers Club) and heads of studies Christian Routh and Tom Abrams.
The Artistic Board also awarded a Special Mention to Pavo Marinković, the award-winning Croatian screenwriter and director, for the project JIMMY L. As emphasized by the Board, the project shines a light on a complex time in the muddled history of Eastern and Central Europe. The screenwriter has managed to navigate a way through the chaos of war and present an engrossing account, based on truth, of an outsider struggling to follow his vocation while confronting racial prejudice and constantly shifting political allegiances.
The 14th edition of ScripTeast, the unique in Europe project of the Independent Film Foundation, is often called the most effective training program for screenwriters in Europe and has the highest percentage of its scripts made. Of 160 participating screenplays participating so far, 52 were produced or are currently in production.
The Krzysztof Kieslowski Award of the screenwriting program ScripTeast was presented online for the first time. In its usual form, ScripTeast consists of three sessions, one in Poland and two at world's biggest festivals, Berlinale and Cannes. Due to COVID-19, the last session was moved in its entirety to the Internet. The participants of the program consulted with experts from around the world and took part in meetings devoted to production, sales, promotion of films, case studies, and one-on-one sessions with producers. The guests included Lone Scherfig, the director of "Italian for Beginners," and David Parfitt, Oscar-winner for "Shakespeare in Love."
ScripTeast is organized by the Independent Film Foundation with the support of the European Union's Creative Europe component Media, Polish Film Institute, Apple Film Production, in cooperation with the European Film Academy and the renowned international producers' associations: Producers Network, European Producers Club, Transatlantic Partners, and ACE, with Film New Europe and Filmarket Hub.
More information: www.scripteast.pl
The ScripTeast 14th edition participating projects
DYAD Yana Titova / Bulgaria
FURIOUS BEAUTY Eliška Kovaříková / Czech Republic
JIMMY L. Pavo Marinković / Croatia
LOVABLE Stanislavs Tokalovs, Waldemar Kalinovski / Latvia
BROTHER Maciej Sobieszczański, Grzegorz Puda / Poland
TREMBLING GIANT Jacek Piotr Bławut / Poland
ORUNIA 4EVER Elżbieta Benkowska / Poland
THE COLONEL AND THE DERVISH Vlastimir Sudar / Serbia
THE LOST SON Darko Štante / Slovenia
I AM A GYPSY Gergely Fonyo / Hungary
WINDLESS Teodora Markova, Pavel G. Vesnakov, Georgi Ivanov, Nevena Kertova / Bulgaria
