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SARAJEVO 2021 CineLink Industry Days / Awards

Sarajevo’s CineLink hands out its awards

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- Marko Grba Singh’s Forget The Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves wins the Eurimages Award at the industry section of the 27th Sarajevo Film Festival

Sarajevo’s CineLink hands out its awards
Director Marko Grba Singh, whose project Forget The Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves has won the Eurimages Award

The CineLink Industry Days, the Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry section, ran from 14-29 August and has handed out its awards. The CineLink Co-Production Market jury, comprising Els Hendrix (Eurimages), Romanian producer Ada Solomon (Microfilm) and Greek producer Yorgos Tsourgiannis (Horsefly), decided to present Serbian filmmaker Marko Grba Singh with the €20,000 Eurimages Co-production Development Award for his debut feature fiction project Forget The Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves.

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Written by Grba Singh, the film is a reconstruction of the 1957 encounter and relationship between director's Punjabi and Yugoslav grandparents set in the context of the contemporary post-Brexit crisis in the UK. The film is produced by Dragana Jovović for the Serbian production company Non-Aligned Films, in co-production with Paris-based Bocalupo films.

The debut feature project Vanja, by actress-writer-director Aleksandra Odić, snagged the Film Center Serbia CineLink Award, worth €10,000. The story focuses on Vanja a Bosnia woman who lives in Germany, but when her father, who lives in her homeland, falls seriously ill, she sets off to visit him and have a chance for a reconciliation. Written by Odić, the project is produced by Julia I Peters for Germany’s Jip Film und Verleih.

The Film Center Montenegro CineLink Award, also worth €10,000, was bestowed upon the project Hesitation Wound by Turkish writer-director Selman Nacar. Produced by Burak Çevik and Diloy Gülün (Kuyu Film), in co-production with France’s Arizona Production, the film follows an attorney who believes that the murder suspects who she defends is innocent, but she comes to face her conscience. Furthermore, the Slovenian project Lunatic by Igor Šterk (Come Along [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) has received a Special Mention.

Finally, the Artekino International Prize, worth €6,000, went to Lust, the latest project by Bulgarian writer-director Ralitza Petrova (Godless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ralitza Petrova
film profile
]
), where a daughter becomes the unwitting heir to her estranged father, and despite her will to refuse the heritage, and get back to her life, fate decides differently. The project is being produced by Poli Angelova for Aporia Filmworks.

In the CineLink Drama section for TV series in development, the jury comprising Cia Edström (TV Drama Vision - Göteborg Film Festival), Snežana van Houwelingen (This and That), and Lucas Schmidt (Studio Zentral), have picked Hooked by Romanian writer-director Adrian Sitaru, as the winner of the Croatian Audiovisual Center Drama Award valued at €15,000. The is produced by Anamaria Antoci for Bucharest-based Tangaj Production.

Moreover, Croatian crime-drama series Jinx created by Kristian Novak, written by Mario Kozina and Maja Pek-Brünjes and produced by Danijel Pek for Antitalent, has won the TV Drama Vision Pitch Award and will be presented at TV Drama Vision in Göteborg next year.

Here is the complete list of prizewinners:

CineLink Co-Production Market awards

Eurimages Co-production Development Award
Forget the Ocean, Why Not Try Surfing These Insane River Waves - Marko Grba Singh (Serbia/France)
Producer: Dragana Jovović (Non-Aligned Films)
Co-production company: Bocalupo films

Film Center Serbia CineLink Award
Vanja - Aleksandra Odić (Germany)
Producer: Julia I Peters (Jip Film und Verleih)

Film Center Montenegro CineLink Award
Hesitation Wound - Selman Nacar (Turkey/France)
Producers: Burak Çevik, Diloy Gülün (Kuyu Film)
Co-producer: Guillaume De Seille (Arizona Production)

Special Mention
Lunatic - Igor Šterk (Slovenia)
Producer: Petra Vidmar (A.A.C. Productions)

Artekino International Prize
Lust - Ralitza Petrova (Bulgaria/Denmark)
Producer: Poli Angelova (Aporia Filmworks)

Work in Progress awards

TRT Award
A Ballad [+see also:
film review
interview: Aida Begic
film profile
]
- Aida Begić (Bosnia and Herzegovina/France)
Producers: Adis Đapo, François D’Artemare
Production companies: Film House Sarajevo, Les Films de l'Après Midi 

Post Republic Award
The Taste of Apples Is Red [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Ehab Tarabieh (Israel/Germany)
Producers: Sol Goodman, Jonathan Doweck, Viola Fügen, Michael Weber
Production company: Match Factory

CineLink Iridium Award

Citizen Saint [+see also:
film review
interview: Tinatin Kajrishvili
film profile
]
- Tinatin Kajrishvili (Georgia/France/Bulgaria) (fiction)
Producers: Lasha Khalvashi, Denis Vaslin
Production companies: Artizm, Mandra Films, Chouchkov Brothers 

CineLink Drama awards

Croatian Audiovisual Center Drama Award
Hooked - Adrian Sitaru (Romania)
Producer: Anamaria Antoci (Tangaj Production), 4 Proof Film

TV Drama Vision Pitch Award
Jinx - Kristian Novak (Croatia)
Writers: Mario Kozina, Maja Pek-Brünjes
Producer: Danijel Pek (Antitalent)

Pack & Pitch Talents Sarajevo

CineLink Award
The Holy Kid - Iordanis Theodosiadis, Aristeidis Kotronis (Greece)

Post-production Services from Studio Chelia
A Ton of Ice Cream - Sandra Gjorgieva (North Macedonia)

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