16/11/2022 - Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska’s project has snagged two awards in the cocoPITCH category, while Balázs Dudás’ Blazing saw the same success in cocoWIP

l-r: coco programme and pitching advisor Martina Bleis, Dolphin producer Magdalena Sztorc, Dolphin director Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska and coco director Marjorie Bendeck

The 24th edition of the East-West co-production market connecting cottbus (aka coco) took place from 9-11 November as part of the 32nd FilmFestival Cottbus (8-13 November). It saw the participation of 13 projects in development in the cocoPITCH category and six more works in progress in cocoWIP, with each strand being judged by its own jury.

The main trophy in cocoPITCH was the Audience Award for Best Pitch, as voted on by all of the participants in the event. The gong, along with a €1,500 cash prize, went to the Polish project Dolphin, directed by Sonja Orlewicz-Zakarzewska and produced by Magdalena Sztorc, of the company Before My Eyes. The same project was also presented with the HAVC Project Development Award (a cash prize of €5,000), granted by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

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The same jury, composed of Alicja Grawon-Jaksik (producer, MTL Maxfilm, Poland), Aleš Pavlin (producer, Perfo, Slovenia) and Francesca Tiberi (sales agent, True Colours, Italy), decided on the recipients of two more awards. The Avanpost Pitch Packaging Award was handed to Inheritance, presented by director Stanislav Bytiutskyi and producers Valeria Sochyvets and Inna Lastochkina, of the company Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema. The Romanian post-production outfit Avanpost will thus provide the project with in-kind services of up to €15,000. The Producers Network Award, consisting of a free accreditation for the Producers Network at the Marché du Film at Cannes 2023, went to Petra Iványi (Lupa Pictures, Hungary) and Margarita Amineva-Jester (Voices Films, Germany), the producers of the cocoPITCH project The Origin of the World, directed by Borbála Nagy.

Additionally, the MIDPOINT Consulting Award went to three projects, with each receiving in-depth script consultancy. The awarded projects were Asphalt (directed by Minos Nikolakakis and produced by the director and Vassilis Economou, of the company Asphalt), State (directed by Nikon Romanchenko and produced by Vika Khomenko, of Moon Man) and Supermarket (directed by Nermin Hamzagić and produced by Adis Djapo, of SCCA/pro.ba).

The jury of the cocoWIP competition, composed of Serbian producer and festival programmer Stefan Ivančić (Non-Aligned Films/Locarno Film Festival), German distributor, producer and director Julia Peters (of jip film & verleich), Czech producer Lukaš Moudry (of Studio Beep), and Waheed Zamani and Robert Wunsch (of German company D-Facto Motion), handed two awards and one Special Mention to the works in progress. Along with the main D-Facto Motion WIP Award (consisting of €35,000 in services plus €5,000 for additional expenses), the Hungarian project Blazing, presented by director Balázs Dudás and producer Ádám Farkas, of the company CineSuper, also won the Studio Beep Sound Post-Production Award, consisting of €6,000 in services. A Special Mention from the cocoWIP jury went to Jasna Nanut’s project Seventh Heaven [+see also:
film review
film profile], produced by Hrvoje Osvadić, of Croatian outfit Petnaesta umjetnost.

Here is the full list of award winners:

cocoPITCH

cocoPITCH Audience Award
Dolphin – Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska (Poland)
Producers: Magdalena Sztorc, Before My Eyes

Avanpost Pitch Packaging Award
Inheritance – Stanislav Bytiutskyi (Ukraine)
Producers: Valeria Sochyvets, Inna Lastochkina, Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema

HAVC Project Development Award
Dolphin – Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska
Producers: Magdalena Sztorc, Before My Eyes

Producers Network Award
The Origin of the World – Borbála Nagy (Hungary/Germany)
Producers: Petra Iványi, Margarita Amineva-Jester, Lupa Pictures, Voices Films

MIDPOINT Consulting Award
Asphalt – Minos Nikolakakis (Greece/Slovenia)
Producers: Minos Nikolakakis, Vassilis Economou, Vicky Miha, Boštjan Virc, Asphalt, asterisk*, Studio Virc

State – Nikon Romanchenko (Ukraine)
Producers: Vika Khomenko, Darya Bassel, Moon Man

Supermarket – Nermin Hamzagić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Producers: Adis Djapo, Amra Bakšić Čamo, SCCA/pro.ba

cocoWIP

D-Facto Motion WIP Award
Blazing – Balázs Dudás (Hungary)
Producers: Adam Farkas, Zoltán Mártonffy, Zsuzsanna Gyurin, CineSuper

Studio Beep Sound Post-Production Award
Blazing – Balázs Dudás
Producers: Adam Farkas, Zoltán Mártonffy, Zsuzsanna Gyurin, CineSuper

Special Mention from the cocoWIP Jury
Seventh Heaven – Jasna Nanut (Croatia)
Producers: Hrvoje Osvadić, Petnaesta Umjetnost