The tenth edition of Italian co-production forum When East Meets West (WEMW, 19-21 January), which featured 22 projects, has wrapped with the announcement of the winners of six awards.

The main award, the Film Centre Serbia Development Award, valued at €5,000, was granted to the project Women Do Cry [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova
ficha de la película] by Bulgarian directorial duo Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova who are also co-producing it for their company Activist38. The film tells the story of a family full of women in a society where “gender” is not a familiar word.

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The German-Bulgarian documentary project Strandzha by Pepa Hristova and produced by Julia Cöllen (Fünferfilm) and Martichka Bozhilova (Agitprop) picked the Flow Postproduction Award of €15,000 in post-production facilities, while the Czech project Ordinary Failures by Cristina Groșan and produced by Marek Novák (Xova Film) has been awarded with the Pop Up Film Residency Award. Also, Mery Aghakhanyan, director of the Armenian project Irene’s World received the European Women’s Audiovisual Network award for the Best Woman Director that is given for the fourth consecutive year in WEMW.

The producers’ awards went to three projects. Moldovan writer-producer Ion Gnatiuc has received the scholarship for the participation in the 2021 EAVE European Producers Workshop for his documentary project Electing Miss Santa, directed by Raisa Razmerita. Producers Ivan Đurović from Montenegro — for the fiction project Valley of Monuments by Srđan Vuletić — and Finland’s Isabella Karhu — for Juho-Pekka Tanskanen’s documentary The Last Misfits by the Golden River — have received their free accreditations to Cannes’ Marché du Film Producers Network.

In the sidebar sections of WEMW, starting with documentary work-in-progress platform Last Stop Trieste, the big winner was the Romanian documentary Holy Father [+lee también:
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entrevista: Alina Gorlova
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Finally, in the This Is IT work-in-progress section, the Italian-French co-production The Stonebreaker by Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio was the winner of the Laser Film Award.

For the second consecutive year, the Italy-Baltic Development Award for Co-Production was handed out during WEMW. The €30,000 cash prize was delivered by MiBAC – the Ministry of Cultural Activities and Heritage, the Estonian Film Institute, the Lithuanian Film Centre and the National Film Centre of Latvia to Bandiera Rossa. Ovvero come a otto anni sono diventato comunista e adesso non so più chi cazzo votare, an Italian-Estonian film co-produced by Sayonara Film (Italy) and Exitfilm (Estonia), and to The Sisters, which was co-developed by Fenixfilm (Latvia) and Albolina Film (Italy).

According to the final stats, new record numbers were achieved at WEMW, with 22 projects from 17 countries selected for the co-production forum and 14 films for the work-in-progress sections, chosen from among over 330 submissions. A total of 50 different countries were represented, while 550 registered participants were present in Trieste, where more than 700 one-to-one meetings were scheduled.

Here is the full list of winners at the tenth WEMW:

WEMW co-production forum awards

Film Centre Serbia Development Award
Women Do Cry [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova
ficha de la película] – Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova
Production company: Activist38 (Bulgaria)

Flow Postproduction Award
Strandzha – Pepa Hristova
Production company: Fünferfilm (Germany), Agitprop (Bulgaria)

EAVE Producers Workshop scholarship
Ion Gnatiuc – Electing Miss Santa
Production company: Niste Filme (Moldova)

Marché du Film Producers Network
Ivan Đurović – Valley of Monuments (Montenegro)
Isabella Karhu – The Last Misfits by the Golden River (Finland)

EWA European Women’s Audiovisual Network Award
Irene’s World – Mery Aghakhanyan
Production company: Hoshkee Film (Armenia)

Pop Up Film Residency Award
Ordinary Failures – Cristina Groșan
Production company: Xova Film (Czech Republic)

Last Stop Trieste

Film Centre Serbia LST Award
Holy Father [+lee también:
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Production company: FILMLAB (Romania)

HBO Europe Award
This Rain Will Never Stop [+lee también:
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entrevista: Alina Gorlova
ficha de la película] – Alina Gorlova
Production company: Tabor Production (Ukraine/Latvia/Germany/Qatar)

Flow Digital Cinema Award
Everything Will Not Be Fine – Adrian Pîrvu, Helena Maksyom
Production company: Hi Film Production (Romania/Ukraine)

First Hand Fabulous Award
Everything Will Not Be Fine – Adrian Pîrvu, Helena Maksyom

This Is IT

Laser Film Award
The Stonebreaker – Gianluca De Serio, Massimiliano De Serio
Production company: La Sarraz Pictures (Italy)