Seven cross-border projects are competing for the CinEuro 2024 Prize. The winner will receive 30,000€ for the development of their project.
The finalists of the CinEuro 2024 Prize have been announced during the annual "Meet & Greet" of the CinEuro partners on Sunday 19th of May, in Cannes. This Prize is a cross-border initiative launched last year by different partners of CinEuro. The main goal was to support the emergence of projects that shine a light on the several territories' partnerships through specific subjects, characters or places. Though world conflicts and the past are prevailing, the diversity of the stories written by the finalists shows are rich but still unexplored narration can be.
The finalists will present their projects on July 3rd at the Forum Alentours in Strasbourg. The jury will choose the laureates whose names will be revealed during the following reception at ARTE GEIE. The Fiction Prize is worth 30,000 euros while the Documentary Prize is worth 15,000 euros.
The call for projects for the CinEuro 2025 Prize will open by the end of the year. The European production companies that develop a cross-border project in the territories of the CinEuro Prize are invited to submit their application on cineuro.eu.
The finalists of the Documentary category
CAPITALE(S) EUROPE, LA BATAILLE DES SIEGES
Executive producer company : Tarantula Luxembourg (LU)
Co-production : Cerigo Films (FR)
Filmmaker : Donato Rotunno
Screenwriter : Alexis Metzinger
Capitales Europe - la bataille des sièges is a political and media thriller about seventy years of failed ideals, secret negotiations, mind-boggling statements and turnarounds. Does the capital need to be unique and efficient ? Or does it need to disperse institutions to get the population closer ? What is told in this unknown story is today's imaginary Europe with its successes and failures, its symbols and its search for a still unsteady legitimacy.
LEGENDA
Executive producer company : Backes Production (BE)
Co-production : We-Difi Media Gbr (DE)
Filmmaker : Julien Kartheuser
Screenwriter : Julien Kartheuser
At the end of the Second World War, 300,000 soldiers from the Russian and German armies fell during combat in the Courland region in Latvia which was surrounded for more than 6 months. Then annexed to the USSR, the local population was forced by the Soviet regime to bury these thousands of corpses, without distinction, but with the very order to forget about it. Nowadays, the abundant nature of this region has wiped away every trace of the war. However, a lot of Latvian children grew up hearing about legends of those abandoned corpses. Thanks to the Legenda Archeology organisation, this generation probes today the memories of their native land to free them from this burden buried for way too long.
The finalists of the Fiction category
COMMENT JE M’APPELLE
Executive producer company : Les Films du Bélier, Les Films Hatari (FR)
Co-production : a-BAHN (LU)
Filmmaker : Frank Beauvais
Screenwriters : Elsa Charbit & Frank Beauvais
Comment je m'appelle is the biopic of a stranger and relates her life from the 50s to nowadays. This stranger is none other than my mother. A woman who fought to be herself despite the roles that were assigned to her : daughter, mother and wife.
HELTER SKELTER
Executive producer company : Need Productions (BE)
Co-production : Tripode Productions (FR)
Filmmaker : Paul Vincent de Lestrade
Screenwriter : Paul Vincent de Lestrade
Eva, 14 years old, has been raised - in a radical nationalist group - by a single father who taught her everything and who she admires more than anything... until she finds out he is not afraid to kill.
LE METEOROLOGUE
Executive producer company : L’Heure d’été (FR)
Co-production : Scum Pictures (BE)
Filmmaker : Clyde Gates & Gabriel Sanson
Screenwriter : Clyde Gates & Gabriel Sanson
October, 1916. Joseph is a meteorologist for the French army. During a reconnaissance mission, he is wounded in the head and captured by the enemy. While he is recovering, a German officer notices Joseph's meteorological observations. He is then sent to a weather station, far from the front. There, he meets a community of scientists who are working on a mission : control the rain.
LES DANSEURS DE STRASBOURG
Executive producer company : Avenue B Productions, Kalpa Films (FR)
Co-production : Frakas Productions (BE)
Filmmaker : Zoé Labasse
Screenwriter : Zoé Labasse
July, 1518. A strange dancing plague infects Strasbourg. Hilde is the assistant of an old surgeon and is waiting for the county magistrate to let her practice on her own. While the epidemic is spreading, the streets of Strasbourg witness death. Despite the chaos, Hilde gets the unhoped-for chance to perform dissections. But as she touches inert bodies, she develops a condition.
SCHWEIZER KÜHE | LES VACHES SUISSES
Executive producer company : FFL Film- und Fernseh-Labor (DE)
Co-production : Tellfilm (CH)
Filmmaker : Matthias Dinter
Screenwriter : Ulrike Maria Hund & Matthias Dinter
South of Germany, 1945. When the small locality of Hemmingen is occupied by the French troops, Paul, 10 years old, conceives an adventurous plan to save the cows of the village from the African Muslim soldiers who want to seize them. Paul becomes friends with Officer Aziz, who is in love with Paul's mother, Martha.
Last year, the CinEuro Prize was crowned to "A main levée" by Noha Choukrallah (fiction) and "Le dernier soin" by Nicolas Gayraud (documentary). The first project addresses a major issue in the European Union : agriculture. The film presents an individual and family perspective and takes place in Brussels, Luxembourg and the Grand Est. The second project shines a light on the challenges of migration linked to legal and ethical boundaries surrounding the issue of euthanasia.