15/12/2015 - The Lab Project Award will dish out up to €50,000 to works in progress screened at a select handful of film festivals

A new funding prize of up to €50,000 in post-production funds and/or re-shoots has been announced by Eurimages; in this way, the Council of Europe fund will foster cinema that is experimental in terms of both its production and its narrative form. The award, which will be aimed at movies produced or shot outside the standard rules of filmmaking, will be handed out to films screened as works in progress at one of four handpicked European film festivals. 

The Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the Les Arcs European Film Festival, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund are the four film gatherings selected by Eurimages to present the Lab Project Award, initially for its first three consecutive years. The events will be in charge of selecting the international jury of film professionals, art curators and Eurimages members. 

The award represents the highest funding sum ever to be handed out to movies in their development stages by Eurimages, and stands as proof of the fund’s efforts to actively participate in the renewal of European cinema, by investing in new forms of cinematographic expression, often at the crossroads with other art forms. The award will be inaugurated in 2016.