Last night, the Eurimages New Lab Awards were presented at CPH:INDUSTRY in Copenhagen.

The €20,000 Innovation Award was handed out by a jury composed of Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo (Poike Productio, FIN), Anneli Kustfält (SVT, SE) and Carole Kremer (LU) for Eurimages, to Michelle and Uri Kranot for their project GARDEN ALCHEMY, to be produced by Peter Fisher (DK). For this first Copenhagen edition of the Eurimages New Lab Awards, the jury chose to single out an audiovisual experience combining beautiful hand drawn visuals with innovative immersive technology. The jury was particularly impressed by the multi-sensory aspect of the piece that spans art forms including animation, painting, music and dance.

A second jury, made up of producer Emile Hertling Péronard (Anorak Film, DE), Patricia Finneran (The StoryBoard Collective, CH) and Eleni Chandrinou (GR) for Eurimages, handed out the €30,000 Outreach Award to TIMESTAMP by Kateryna Gornostai, produced by Olha Beskhmelnytsina and Natalia Libet (2Brave Productions / Rinkel Film & Docs, UA & NL). Set in wartime, this film tells the story of teachers, mostly women, who fight on another front, that of the school, to preserve normality for children. The jury hopes that this award will help this project, which provides a nuanced image of life in a war-torn country, to find broad international audiences.

More information on the festival website.

The Eurimages New Lab Awards are presented each year at two industry events. For this inaugural cycle 2024-2026, the Eurimages Board of Management has chosen the International Film Festival Rotterdam and CPH:DOX in Copenhagen. The next Eurimages New Lab Awards will therefore be presented at the IFFR Pro 2025 edition.

31.01.2024 - Last night, the very first Eurimages New Lab Awards were presented at the closing ceremony of the IFFR Pro industry days in Rotterdam.

The €20,000 Innovation Award, intended to support experimental projects in development, was awarded to Barbara Rupik (PL) for CHERUB, to be produced by the Polish company Madants. This first feature film is an experimental animation combining puppet and mixed media stop-motion animation and a technique using oils developed by the author herself.

The jury, made up of Nathalie Mierot (SEE NL), Jamie Weiss (EL VIAJE FILMS, ES) and Elena Kotova (CZ) for Eurimages, was impressed by "the innovative approach in forging an original and inventive artistic practice to weave a narrative intertwining rural folklore with elements of genre, to illustrate a universal tale, created by an emerging visual artist whose handcrafted animation style has the intention and potential for international cooperation”. 

The same jury also chose to award the €30,000 Outreach Award, intended to promote public awareness of experimental projects at the end of production or in post-production, to the DUCHAMPIANA project to be directed by Lilian Hess (DE) and produced by Tchikiboum (FR) in co-operation with Germany. This VR immersive installation in the art space conceived to be premiered at festivals is intended to become an installation for museums. Jury members were impressed by "its use of body movement, combined with new immersive technologies in order to evoke a sense of freedom and rebirth, interrogating a classical piece of artwork through a feminist practice".

More information on the Festival website.