XIVXIV Strip your script. Make it better. 2020 We will take it worldwide. Each May, we gather in Cannes to celebrate the scriptwriters who have Violetta Kamińska ScripTeast participated in ScripTeast over the past year and award the best of their scripts Managing Director the Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award at a ceremony by the sea. Of course this year circumstances dictate that we must put on our cocktail attire and sip our champagne at home instead. It is in the nature of creativity to persevere, and with it, our industry perseveres too. We must move forward just as surely as we must make films – the call of creativity cannot be denied. And so we move onwards, with our support for the best CEE writers, providing them with the wisest advice and expertise of top international professionals. Our goal is, as always, to help scriptwriters navigate the industry, never give up, and make films for the burgeoning global audience. So far, 43 of these films Izabela Wójcik have been made to box office and critical acclaim, with just the most recent Independent Film Foundation, Director success being Vaclav Marhoul’s “The Painted Bird,” the story of which, in itself, is a great lesson in perseverance. Fully polished through hard work with the help of our distinguished advisors, we present to you here 11 of the best projects and authors from this part of Europe, amongst which we hope you might find the next great internationally acclaimed discovery. We are very grateful to the diverse group of professionals who accept our invitation to be Creative Advisers each year, our Heads of Studies, Tom Abrams and Christian Routh, and to all the institutions who have been supporting ScripTeast over Dariusz Jabłoński ScripTeast the years. We look forward to continuing this work together for years to come. President WWW @ THE KRZYSZTOF KIEŚLOWSKI SCRIPTEAST AWARD Every year The Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award for the Best Eastern European Script is presented to the author of the best participating project, as selected by the Artistic Board: Doreen Boonekamp, Sandy Lieberson, Antonio Saura, Manfred Schmidt, Simon Perry and the ScripTeast’s Heads of Studies, Tom Abrams and Christian Routh. The Award is accompanied by a 10 000 Euro prize money to be spent on further work on the project. WWW @ Simon Manfred Perry Schmidt Doreen ARTISTIC BOARD Boonekamp THE KRZYSZTOF KIEŚLOWSKI SCRIPTEAST AWARD Antonio Sandy Saura Lieberson WWW @ BROTHER MACIEJ SOBIESZCZAŃSKI, GRZEGORZ PUDA / POLAND DYAD YANA TITOVA / BULGARIA FURIOUS BEAUTY ELIŠKA KOVÁŘÍKOVÁ, ŠTĚPÁN ALTRICHTER / CZECH REPUBLIC I AM A GYPSY GERGELY FONYO / HUNGARY JIMMY L. PAVO MARINKOVIĆ / CROATIA BEST SCRIPTS LOVABLE STANISLAVS TOKALOVS, WALDEMAR KALINOVSKI / LATVIA ORUNIA 4EVER FROM CEE ELŻBIETA BENKOWSKA / POLAND THE COLONEL AND THE DERVISH DEVELOPED VLASTIMIR SUDAR / SERBIA THE LOST SON WITHIN XIV DARKO ŠTANTE / SLOVENIA TREMBLING GIANT SCRIPTEAST JACEK PIOTR BŁAWUT / POLAND WINDLESS TEODORA MARKOVA, GEORGI IVANOV, NEVENA KERTOVA / BULGARIA WWW @ MACIEJ SOBIESZCZAŃSKI Poland BROTHER Maciej is a director and screenwriter. As a director, Sobieszczanski made A young judo champion struggles to hold his family his debut with Łukasz Ronduda with the film “Performer,” a story from together after his father is sent to prison. the borderland of arts, about the 14 year-old Dawid could become a judo champion, if real-life outstanding Polish artist Oskar Dawicki. The film premiered it wasn’t for his short temper and aggression he finds at the Berlin International Film hard to control. It’s the only legacy he has from his Festival in 2015 and received the violent, imprisoned father. Dawid struggles to live up Think: The Award. The film was to his mother’s hopes for him while keeping an eye on shown in major galleries around the his conniving 9 year-old brother. He gets a chance to world, including at Tate Modern in London. For his second film “Zgoda” turn his life around when he’s invited to an important (Reconciliation) he received the judo tournament in Berlin. But will he have what it Best Director Award at the Montreal takes to seize this one-in-a-lifetime opportunity? Intenational Film Festival 2017. 11 BEST SCRIPTS WWW @ YANA TITOVA Bulgaria DYAD Yana Titova is a Bulgarian writer/ director/actress who spends her Smart, angry, self-reliant Dida will stop at nothing time between Sofia and London. After having a very successful career on the way to her one tangible goal that justifies all as an actress, Yana has changed her moral compromises – to buy a plane ticket, so she professional path towards directing. can join her estranged mother in the USA. Yana is a Berlinale Talent Campus Alumni. Her career started with A special offer on a ticket to Dida’s dream of a new three award-winning fiction short life in New York with her mother will expire in a few films “The Bridge”, “Solveig”, “The hours. Dida steals, blows and bullies to raise the cash, House”, and the documentary but as the pressure mounts, she goes berserk and is “88MHz”, which screened widely and garnered numerous awards. suspended from school. To cap it all, her pregnancy Yana’s directorial feature film debut test reads positive. Finally, she is able to talk about “A Dose Of Happiness” had its wide her plans with her elusive mother, Zoya, which reveals theatrical release in Bulgaria in a truth she has been blind to – Zoya, now working as November 2019 and became the a prostitute, never intended to take her daughter to highest-grossing Bulgarian film America with her. Dida snaps and spirals into extreme of 2019 holding the eight place of all-time cinema admissions for behaviour with fatal consequences. Bulgarian-made films. Following its success in Bulgaria, the film will be shown on HBO Europe in May 2020. 11 BEST SCRIPTS WWW @ ELIŠKA KOVÁŘÍKOVÁ Czech Republic FURIOUS BEAUTY A Dramaturgy and Scriptwriting master’s student at the Prague film school FAMU, Five women named Eliska represent several where she directed several short films. In 2017 she founded film-acting classes generations of a witty and eccentric Czech family. for children in Prague, where she still During a big Catholic festival in a small town, each works as a lecturer. „Furious Beauty” one of them has her own adventures. won development prizes at Karlovy Vary IFF in 2019 and at Famufest in 2018. Welcome to a small, ordinary Czech town, changed beyond recognition once a year during a big Catholic pilgrimage. Every Christian family wants to host the miracle-working image of the Virgin Mary in their home, including GRANDMOTHER (66). She is determined to use any means necessary to get the ŠTĚPÁN ALTRICHTER picture for the 100th birthday of her mother – GREAT- Czech Republic GRANDMOTHER (99). Meanwhile, her family arrives for the festival – MOTHER (37), BIG SISTER (15) and A HFF Konrad Wolf Potsdam-Babelsberg LITTLE SISTER (6), each with her own special problem graduate. His debut feature film “Schmitke” and secret desire. And strange similarities are won the Best Eastern European debut in Cottbus, best Czech debut in Pilsen, beginning to appear in everyone’s lives. Fipresci Award in Schwerin and others. His second feature “National Street” was made with the participation of Eurimages. He is currently preparing to direct the German film “Runner” which he also wrote. 11 BEST SCRIPTS WWW @ GERGELY FONYO Hungary I AM A GYPSY Gergely is a prolific feature film and television director. His directorial Can a child beat prejudice, or will prejudice beat the debut “Johnny Famous“ won Best Picture at the Hungarian Film Week child? A gay Romani boy’s struggle for education in 2000. His musical comedy feature in the segregated school system of small town “Made in Hungaria” was selected for Hungary. Karlovy Vary Variety Critics Choice Section and won Best Picture at Hungarians and Gypsies have been living together the Granada Film Festival in 2009. for centuries. The status quo is that the Hungarians “The House of the Stone Monkeys”, are smart and the Gypsies are stupid. There is a gay, a TV-movie he directed, was 7-year-old boy, Lali, who wants to challenge this. But he selected for at Banff World Media Festival, and the Sichuan does the unpardonable: he wins a competition against International TV Festival in 2015. Hungarian kids. The powers that be turn against him His other notable work includes and take away everything from Lali. They kick him out HBO Hungary’s dramedy series of school, they humiliate him, let him starve. The only “Tarsas Jatek”. Gergely is recently thing they can’t take away is Lali’s victory. He's focusing on writing his own scripts. As an author, he is interested in proven that a Gypsy can be as smart, if not smarter, than telling stories of how traumatic a white Hungarian if he’s given an equal opportunity. childhood experiences, addiction, social discrimination, abuse, and minority existence shape our lives and identity. 11 BEST SCRIPTS WWW @ PAVO MARINKOVIĆ Croatia JIMMY L. Born in Zagreb, Croatia, in 1967, Pavo graduated with a degree in An African-American boxing champion goes to Dramaturgy at the ADU in Zagreb. His first theatre plays were released Europe to regain his pride, but when the Nazis take in the early 90s and won a lot of over, he struggles to keep his honor. domestic awards. After a 10-year tenure as a commissioning editor On the eve of World War II, Jimmy Lyggett, a Black for the public broadcaster HRT American boxing champion travels to Zagreb with (1996-2005), he started a career his Croatian fiancée hoping to establish himself as a as a freelancing writer-director.