At the end of 2015 the Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund joined forces with four European festivals to establish the "Eurimages Lab Project Award" for innovative projects exploring new forms of expression, as from 2016.
This prize, amounting to €50,000, was awarded by the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund, the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and the European Film Festival des Arcs within the framework of their “Works in Progress” events.
To be eligible, projects had to be mainly produced in a Eurimages member state, participate in one of the above events and show co-operation between at least two countries.
During its strategic meeting in October 2019, Eurimages Board of Management decided to suspend, as from January 2021, support for lab projets in its current form and to launch an independant study on the relevance and modalities of support for non-conventional cinematographic projects. Following a market consultation launched in September 2020, this study on the feasibility pertinence and design of a Lab Projects support programme for the Eurimages Fund has been entrusted to the structure Tatino Films (FR).
You can read the final report of this study which was presented to the Board of Management at its plenary meeting on 19 March 2021 in full or in summary.
On the basis of the conclusions of this report and the discussions of a Study Group, the Eurimages Board of Management adopted in December 2022 the creation of two New Eurimages Lab Awards: the Innovation Award for innovative and experimental projects in development andthe Outreach Award to promote public awareness of innovative and experimental projects at the end of production or in post-production.
During its meeting on 29-30 June 2023 and following the call for proposals launched in March 2023, the Eurimages Board of Management approved the selection of two initiatives to present the New Eurimages Lab Awards, each consisting of one Innovation Award of €20,000 and one Outreach Award of €30,000 in 2024-2026, namely:
CPH:DOX (Denmark) and
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) (The Netherlands).
projects rewarded by this prize
2024 - EURIMAGES NEW LAB AWARDS
INNOVATION AWARDS
Garden Alchemy by Michelle and Uri Kranot, produced by Peter Fisher (DK) - Copenhagen
Cherub by Barbara Rupik, produced by the company Madants (PL) - Rotterdam
OUTREACH AWARDS
Timestamp by Kateryna Gornostai, produced by Olha Beskhmelnytsina and Natalia Libet (2Brave Productions / Rinkel Film & Docs, UA & NL) - Copenhagen
Duchampiana by Lilian Hess, produced by Tchikiboum (FR) in co-operation with Germany - Rotterdam
2020
Magdala de Damien Manivel (m), produit par la société Mld Films (FR) - Les Arcs
Tracking Satyrs de Maciej & Michal Madraccy (m) et Gilles Lepore (m), produit par Beata Rzeźniczek de la société Madants (PL) - Thessalonique
A Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic de Teemu Nikki (m), produit par Jani Pösö de la société It's Alive Films (FIN) - Haugesund
Atlantide de Yuri Ancarani (m), produit par Marco Alessi de la société Dugong Srl (IT) en coopération avec la France - Karlovy Vary
m : masculin ; f : féminin
2019
Figures in the Urban Landscape by Ekaterina Selenkina (f) and produced by Vladimir Nadein (RU) - Les Arcs
Mother Lode by Matteo Tortone, produced by Alexis Taillant and Nadège Labé from the company Wendigo Films (FR) in cooperation with Benjamin Poumey from C-Side Productions (CH) and Margot Mecca from Malfé Films (IT) - Thessaloniki
Him by Guro Bruusgaard (m), produced by the Norwegian company Alternativet Produksjon; A Special Mention went to Jessicaby Ninja Thyberg - Haugesund
Bottled Songs written, directed and produced by Kevin B. Lee (m) and Chloé Galibert (f) respectively from Germany and France - Karlovy Vary
m: male; f: female
2018
White on White by Theo Court (m), produced by Jose Alayon from the company El Viaje Films (ES) - Les Arcs
Undergrown by Marta Ribeiro (f), produced by Joana Peralta from the company Videolotion (PT) - Thessaloniki
Burning Man by Itonje Søimer Guttormsen (f), produced by Maria Ekerhovd from the company Mer Film (NO); A special mention from the Eurimages jury went to the film Season by John Skoog, produced by Erik Hemmendorff (Plattform) - Haugesund
Normal by Adele Tulli (f), produced by Valeria Adilardi, Laura Romano and Luca Ricciardi from the company FilmAffair (IT) - Karlovy Vary
m: male; f: female
2017
Gold Is All There Is by Andrea Caccia (m), produced by Dugong Films (IT), Picofilms (FR) and Rough Cat (CH) - Les Arcs
Speak So I Can See You by Marija Stojnic (f), produced by Marija Stojnic and Milos Ivanovic from the company Bilboke (RS) - Thessaloniki
Jimmie by Jesper Ganslandt (m), produced by Jesper Kurlandsky, Hedvig Lundgren and Juan Libossart from the company Fasad (SE) ; Special Mentions went to the projects Alma by Kristín Jóhannedóttir produced by Gudrun Edda Thorhannesdottir, Anna G. Magnusdottir, Ilann Girard, Jim Stark, Lilja Ósk Snorradóttir andt Elfar Adalstei and The Second Sex by Katja Eyde Jacobsen produced by Maria Ekerhovd and Elisa Pirir – Haugesund
The Stand-In by Rä di Martino (f), produced by Dugong Srl (IT) in co-operation with France and Marocco - Karlovy Vary
m: male; f: female
2016
The Hidden City by Victor Moreno (m), produced by the companies El Viaje Films (ES) and Pomme Hurlante (FR) - Les Arcs
Thorn (GR, DK) by Gabriel Tzafka (m), produced by Panayiotis Kakavias (Kakavias Film) and Michael Bille Frandsen & Theis Nørgaard (Nitrat Film) - Thessaloniki
The Wind Blew On (IS) by Katrín Ólafsdóttir (f), produced by par Incoherence Cinema Limited - Haugesund
Perseverance (Vztrajanje) (SI, HR, IT, RS) by Miha Knific (m), produced by Siniša Juričič – Karlovy Vary
13/12/2016 – The fourth and last EURIMAGES LAB PROJECT AWARD was given last night to the project entitled The Hidden City by Victor Moreno, produced by the companies El Viaje Films (ES) and Pomme Hurlante (FR), in the framework of the Festival’s initiative Work-In-Progress which came to a close last night. The jury composed of the directors Bertrand Bonello and Clément Cogitore, Béatrice Fiorentino (Venice’s International Critics Weeks), Sara Norberg (Director of Helsinki’s International Film Festival, Love & Anarchy) and Karin Schockweiler (LU) for Eurimages, was impressed by the imagery and the audacious concept of this project which films the reality in an innovative and creative way with its mixture of documentary and science fiction. See the Festival's website.
The third EURIMAGES LAB PROJECT AWARD awarded on 12 November 2016 in the framework of the AGORA Works-In-Progress initiative of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival went to the project Thorn by Garbiel Tzafka, produced by the companies Kakavias Film (GR) and Nitrat Film (DK). The jury composed of Alexandros Christoyiannis (Content Director & Deputy Director, OTE TV, Greece), Giorgio Gosetti (Artistic Director, Venice Days – Venice Festival, Italy) and Rachel Schmid (Eurimages Representative, Switzerland) who were particularly seduced by the quality of the projects in this edition and also awarded the GRAAL Co-production Prize to the film Charlton Heston by Andrei Cretulescu. Further information on the Festival’s website.
The second EURIMAGES LAB PROJECT AWARD presented at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund as part of its New Nordic Films’ works-in-progress held on 24 and 25 August 2016 went to the Icelandic project The wind blew on directed by Katrín Ólafsdóttir and produced by Katrín Ólafsdóttir and Katie Nicoll. The jury consisting of the Norwegian director Bent Hamer, the Eurimages Dutch representative Dorien van de Pas and Heidi Zwicker, programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, was “struck by the beauty of the images and the whole cinematic approach. The concept of the film creates an emotional, which reaches out directly to us, the viewers. The jury respects the Commitment of this filmmaker to the strong vision and the Independent way of developing the project”. See the press release and the Festival website.
The first EURIMAGES LAB PROJECT (more details under Promotion(development awards...)) presented at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival as part of its “Works in Progress” event went to the film Perseverance (Vztrajanje) by Miha Knific, a co-production between Slovenia, Croatia, Italy and Serbia.
The jury consisting of Karin Schockweiler (Eurimages Luxembourg representative), Kim Yutani (Sundance IFF) and Meinolf Zurhorst (ARTE/ZDF) was "moved by this poetic film that evokes the basic conditions of mankind". It decided to give the Eurimages Lab Project Award @ KVIFF amounting to €50,000 to this film "for its visually striking and sensory jouney through the secrets, memories, and imagination of the human race".
This jury also decided to give the Works in Progress Award in a total value of €100,000 to the film entitled Requiem for Mrs. J (RS, BG, MK) by Bojan Vuletić, supported by Eurimages. More information on the Festival's website.
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