03/03/2010

Roughly 50 filmmakers from around the world will gather in Bratislava 19–27 March to work on scriptwriting or development through two major European initiatives supporting emerging film talents: Torino Film Lab and Script&Pitch workshops.

The two residential workshops come to Bratislava as part of a new partnership with the Bratislava International Film Festival.

“These partnerships confirm the new priorities defined by the refreshed artistic and managing teams of the festival: gaining international recognition, discovering new talents, and being active all year long,” said IFF Bratislava artistic director Matthieu Darras.

The Torino Film Lab residential workshop will be held March 19–22 in Bratislava. Among the 11 projects selected are projects from Bosnian director Aida Begic, Malaysian director Liew Seng-Tat, Romanian director Bogdan Mustata, Swiss director Tobias Nolle, and Slovenian director Martin Turk. Tutors include Dutch sound designer Michel Schöpping.

The Script&Pitch residential workshop will take place March 21–27. Fifteen projects have been selected, including new projects from Romanian director Florin Serban, French filmmaker Virgil Vernier, and Slovak scriptwriter Anita Obdržálková.

Slovak film professionals, students and general public will be able to interact with visiting filmmakers through film lectures and short film screenings, presented in partnership with the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU).

Torino Film Lab is a year-round, international laboratory that supports emerging talents who are working on their first and second feature films, offering training, development and funding activities. Torino Film Lab culminates at the Torino Film Festival in November. A purse of more than EUR 600,000 goes to the Production Awards winning projects.

Script&Pitch is an advanced development course for international scriptwriters and story editors, supported by the MEDIA Programme.