With its Crossroads Co-production Forum celebrating its 12^th anniversary, the Agora Works in Progress presenting its most varied project selection yet, the Eurimages Lab Project Award being added to its roster of prizes, and educational activities like the Agora Training Day and the Locarno Industry Academy International widening the scope of its activities, the Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s Agora has handed out its annual awards, capping off another stellar year and pushing initiatives aimed at helping deals get sealed and films get made.

Sifting through the 14 projects submitted at this year’s events, as always supervised by French producer Marie-Pierre Macia, the 12^th Crossroads Co-production Forum’s jury picked out Cenk Erturk’s Noah Land [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] (working title: Noah Tree) as the most promising work submitted this year, handing its maker the post-production services offered by Greek company Post-Production 2|35, at the same time offering the film’s producer free accreditation for the Producers Network at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

France’s CNC, aiming to support and promote cinema in France and abroad, granted its Development Award of €10,000 for script development to Berlinale Talent Campus alumna Asimina Proedrou, for her Greco-Hungarian feature debut Behind the Haystacks [+lire aussi :
critique
fiche film]. Exploring the theme of corruption in the modern world, the project also picked up French consulting firm Initiative Film’s Film Services Award.

Produced by Xenia [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Panos H. Koutras
fiche film]’s Eleni Kossyfidou, Alexis Kardaras’ third feature, Fantasia, picked up the Musou Award, offering music, sound and scoring services as well as a single consultation session by Initiative Film, while the Mediterranean Film Institute’s Script 2 Film Workshop awarded a full scholarship to Azra Deniz Okyay’s Turkish project Figuras.

After praising the exceptional quality of all of the projects partaking in the Works in Progress section, WiP’s jury handed its post-production services offered by local company Graal to Andrei Cretulescu’s Franco-Romanian comedy Charlton Heston (read the news), and multi-award-winning shorts director Gabriel Tzafka picked up the inaugural Eurimages Lab Project Award for his long-awaited feature debut, Thorn. 

Here is the complete list of industry award winners:

Crossroads Co-production Forum Award (Image and Sound)
Noah Land [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] – Cenk Erturk (Turkey) 

CNC Development Award
Behind the Haystacks [+lire aussi :
critique
fiche film] – Asimina Proedrou (Greece/Hungary)

Musou Award
Fantasia – Alexis Kardaras (Greece) 

Crossroads Co-production Forum Special Mentions
Figuras – Azra Deniz Okyay (Turkey)
A Kingdom (working title) – Emilie Aussel (France) 

Script 2 Film Workshop Full Scholarship
Figuras – Azra Deniz Okyay 

Initiative Film Services Award
Behind the Haystacks – Asimina Proedrou 

Initiative Film Single Consultation Session
Fantasia – Alexis Kardaras 

Graal Co-production Award
Charlton Heston – Andrei Cretulescu (France/Romania) 

Eurimages Lab Project Award
Thorn – Gabriel Tzafka (Greece/Denmark)