The new film in preparation "Živi i zdari", by Montenegrin director and screenwriter Ivan Marinović, received the screenplay award within the CineLink Co-Production Market for 2019 at the just concluded Sarajevo Film Festival.
"The award for excellence was awarded to a project in which comic elements and the dramatic and serious background of the story are impressively connected, in which a reluctant bride agrees to marry against her own judgment. The jury's explanation also states that "special value is found in a sensitive but handling the emotional complexities dealt with in the script with humor," the jury explained.
The jury included Georges Goldenstern from Cinéfondation, Behrooz Hashemian from Silkroad Production, Čedomir Kolar from ASAP Films, Emma Scott from Screen Ireland and Annamaria Lodato, representative of ARTE France Cinéma, Sehad Čekić, director of the Film Center of Montenegro, and Francine Raveney representative of Euroimages.
For the project "Alive and Healthy" this is the second award, since the script won the Krzystof Kieslowski prize at the Script East program for script development in Cannes in May this year.
Another good news for Marinović's second feature film is that at this year's MEDIA competition for the Development of Group Projects, the Production House Sense Production received development support in the amount of 35.000 euros.
The film will be a co-production of Montenegro and Serbia, namely Marinović's Adriatic Western company and Sense production by Milan and Marija Stojanović.
This success is extremely significant not only for the awarded companies but also for the development of the audiovisual sector in the region.
According to the director and screenwriter, financing film production in Europe is a very slow and complex process. However, these awards instill confidence and faith in the quality of the project.
"My wish is that "Alive and Healthy" will be a big and exciting film and that in terms of production, we will create conditions for the full range of creative activity of the entire team. And this actually means more time to work through a greater number of shooting days, which was the case with the previous film impossible due to the small budget of the project," said Marinović.
"Alive and Healthy" was supported in the development phase by the Film Center of Montenegro, while the financing of the project is currently underway.
Production is planned in Boka Kotorska and is expected to be completed in 2021.
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