Projects on the Rise: Three Cash Prizes and 1,400 Partner Meetings at the Berlinale Co-Production Market

On Monday, three cash prizes were awarded to new feature film projects at the Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 12 to 16).

The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, endowed with 20,000 Euros, went to the producers of Caracteres Productions from France, and Honare Khiyal from Iran for their project My Favourite Cake (directors: Behtash Sanaeeha & Maryam Moghaddam ). The award is presented by the European film fund Eurimages to promote the development of the project. The jury members this year were world sales representative Sata Cissokho (France, Memento Films International), producer Maria Ekerhovd (Norway, Mer Film), and funding representative Pablo Perez de Lema (Spain, ICAA). Carla Simón’s Alcarràs, a previous Berlinale Co-Production Market project that won this award in 2019, is screening in this year’s Berlinale Competition.

The VFF Talent Highlight Award with the prize money of 10,000 Euros, annually presented by the VFF – Copyright Agency of Film and TV Producers, promotes one promising young project from the “Talent Project Market” organised by the Berlinale Co-Production Market in cooperation with Berlinale Talents. This year the award goes to Girls Will Be Girls (director: Shuchi Talati), pitched at the Berlinale Co-Production Market by its producer Pooja Chauhan (Crawling Angel Films, India). Nominee awards of 1,000 Euros each went to the producers Kobi Mizrahi (KM Productions) from Israel and Bárbara Defanti (Sobretudo Produção) from Brazil.

The ARTEKino International Award 2022 also goes to Girls Will Be Girls. This award worth 6,000 Euros is presented by ARTE to honour an artistically outstanding project from the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

At the 19th Berlinale Co-Production Market, the producers of the 34 selected feature film projects meet co-producers and financiers. Over 1,400 individual digital meetings with potentially suitable partners among the total of over 550 participants were planned and coordinated in advance.

Ten books for screen adaptations and ten new series projects will also be presented. These are the focus of the pitch events “Books at Berlinale” and “Co-Pro Series”.

More than 330 films and 19 series that have sought partners at the Berlinale Co-Production Market in recent years have now been completed. Two of them are screening in the Berlinale programme this year, and the animated documentary Flee by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, a former “Talent Project Market” project, is currently nominated for three Oscars™.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is supported by MDM - Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the European Union’s programme Creative Europe - MEDIA.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is part of the European Film Market.