02/12/2013 - 12th Baltic Event at Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in Tallinn gave out five prizes, including the newly established Clear Light Award

The 12th edition of Baltic Event, the largest coproduction platform in the region of Northern and Central Europe, hosted nearly 300 guests from over 30 countries. 

The Best Project award worth € 5,000 in post-production services from the Estonian Digital Centre went to Miracle in Cluj, a project from Romania's SpotFilm, by writer-director Botond Püsök and producer György Durst. Budgeted at €840,000, the drama-comedy set in the Transylvanian city is about a family that falls victim to a pyramid scheme.

Püsök has so far made six short films, while Durst has two Palmes d'Or under his belt, both for shorts - After Rain by Péter Mészáros in 2002 and Wind by Marcell Iivány in 1996.

The Best Pitch Award, given for the fifth time by Screen International and consisting of extended coverage of the project's development and production in the trade paper, went to Latvian project Seneca's Day by writer-director Kristijonas Vildžiūnas (Back to Your Arms, You am I) and producer Uljana Kim whose company Studio Uljana Kim produced all of Vildžiūnas' films, as well as The Gambler [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ignas Jonynas
film profile] by Ignas Jonynas, which played in the Tridens Baltic Competitionat PÖFF.

The €1,480,000 drama Seneca's Day, set in 1989 and the present day, is being coproduced by France's Unlimited SA, Estonia's Amrion OÜ and Latvia's Locomotive Productions, which makes it the first coproduction of the three Baltic countries ever.

Cannes’ Marché du film Producers' Network awarded free accreditation for their 2014 edition to two young and promising producers - one in the Co-Production Market selection and the other for the Baltic Bridge East by West training initiative. The first went to Baltic Event's first ever Danish participant Mille Haynes, representing the project Say Something, Pierrot!, a hybrid documentary by writer-director Maja Friis, budgeted at €572,657. The second accreditation was awarded to Lithuania's Lukas Trimonis, the producer of post-Soviet tragicomedy Miracle bywriter-director Egle Vertelyte.

The newly-established Clear Light Award, worth €5,400 in lighting services by Estonian company Digital Sputnik, went to Making Movies Oy producers Kaarle Aho and Kai Nordberg and Finland's newest rising star director Jussi Hiltunen who presented their contemporary Lapland western project Law of the Land, with a budget of €1.5 million.