The third edition of European Work in Progress Cologne (EWIP), which took place from 5- 7 October, during the 30th Film Festival Cologne, has unveiled its winners. This year, 28 projects from 34 countries were selected to take part in the event, which aims to bring creative minds together with appropriate distributors, co-producers, world sales agents and festival representatives in order to further develop and finalise collaboration and financing strategies.

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The six winners of the third edition of European Work in Progress Cologne were announced by the international jury, which this year brought together Triin Tramberg (Tallinn Black Nights Festival), Leslie Chen (Blossoms Entertainment), Melanie Andernach (MADE IN GERMANY Filmproduktion) and Sebastian Lückel (ARD Degeto).

The European Work in Progress Cologne K13 Studios Award, endowed with a voucher worth €10,000 for sound mixing, went to Octopus Skin by Ana Cristina Barragan, a film about Agatha and Ariel, 14-year-old twins who live with their mother and their older sister on a remote beach on one of the Galapagos Islands. One day, they find themselves forced to go to the city for the first time. “We were mesmerised by the great cinematography of Ana Christina Barragan’s movie. It gave us a short glimpse of the beautiful nature of the island. The clips also provided a closeness to the young child actors. We felt an emotional connection with this rather special coming-of-age story. The characters search for their identity and a “bigger world” – only to figure out later that sometimes, the small place you are fleeing is actually the place where you belong,” the jury stated.

Anna M Bofarull’s Sinjar [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] received the European Work in Progress LAVAlabs Moving Images Award, a prize endowed with €10,000 for visual effects. The project explores the intertwined lives of three women: Carlota, a middle-aged European mother; Hadia, a Yazidi slave held captive in Syria; and Arjin, a sex slave-turned-girl soldier in Iraq. “Sinjar was pitched as a powerful story with different angles and a very convincing cast. The fact that the story combines ISIS with a Western European perspective shows that war and its effects travel around the globe – not just in movies, but in real life, too.”

The EWIP ARRI Media Award, endowed with a voucher worth €5,000 for colour-grading services, went to Darkling [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Dušan Milić
scheda film] by Dušan Milić, a film that depicts the struggles of a family living in post-war Kosovo.

Furthermore, the EWIP K13 Studios Award, which comes with a voucher worth €5,000 for dubbing, went to the project Convenience Store [+leggi anche:
recensione
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intervista: Michael Borodin
scheda film] by Michael Borodin, which tells an intimate story about being a mother and a woman under the unbearable conditions of modern slavery.

Valued at €7,500 intended for international festival public relations, the European Work in Progress Cologne ZOOM Medienfabrik Award went to two projects: Butterfly Vision [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Maksym Nakonechnyi
scheda film] by Maksym Nakonechnyi and Whispers of War by Florian Hoffmann.

Two panels accompanied the event organised in cooperation with AG Verleih (the association of German independent film distributors) and mainly supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. The “Rethinking Business? Film Distribution in Times of Corona” panel, supported by Creative Europe Desk NRW, dealt with the question of which changes will affect the film industry in the long term owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Another panel, set up in cooperation with Creative Europe Desk Germany, dealt with innovative distribution strategies and the importance of targeting the audience in an increasingly fragmented cinema landscape.

"European Work in Progress has now become well established. I am very pleased about the participants’ appreciation of the fact that the event is still taking place under these circumstances, and especially of the way it was conducted. I look forward to the fourth edition in 2021," said Torsten Frehse, managing director of EWIP and a board member of AG Verleih, summing up the event.

Here is the complete list of winners at European Work in Progress Cologne 2020:

EWIP K13-Studios Award
Octopus Skin - Ana Cristina Barragan (Ecuador/Germany/Greece/Mexico)
Producer: Isabella Parra (Caleidoscopio Cine)
Co-producers: Titus Kreyenberg (unafilm), Konstantina Stavrianou (Graal)

EWIP LAVAlabs Moving Images Award
Sinjar - Anna M Bofarull (Spain/USA)
Producer: Anna M Bofarull, Marian Matachana (KaBoGa)
Co-producer: Azadeh Khatibi (Genius at Large)

EWIP ARRI Media Award
Darkling [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Dušan Milić
scheda film] - Dušan Milić (Serbia/Denmark/Italy/Greece/Bulgaria)
Producer: Snežana van Houwelingen (Film Deluxe International)
Co-producers: Ivan Krstović (This and That Productions), Ivana Miković (Firefly Productions), Stefan Kitanov (RFF International), Lene Broglum (Space Rocket Nation), Debora Desio (A_Lab), Rena Vougioukalou (Graal SA)

EWIP K13-Studios Award
Convenience Store - Michael Borodin (Russia/Slovenia/Turkey)
Producers: Artem Vasilyev, Asya Pavlovskaya (METRAFILMS)
Co-producers: Ales Pavlin, Andrej Stritof (PERFO), Diloy Gulun (KARMA FILMS)
Creative producer: Julia Shaginurova (Einbahnstrasse Productions)

EWIP ZOOM Medienfabrik Award
Butterfly Vision [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Maksym Nakonechnyi
scheda film] - Maksym Nakonechnyi (Ukraine/Croatia/Czech Republic)
Producer: Darya Bassel, Yelizaveta Smith (Tabor)
Co-producer: Anita Juka (4Film), Dagmar Sedláčková (MasterFilm)

Whispers of War - Florian Hoffmann (Germany)
Producers: Alexander Wadouh, Roxana Richters (Chromosom Film)
Co-producers: Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin, ZDF