"Sophie Scholl" writer to act as ScriptEast creative advisor

German scriptwriter and author Fred Breinersdorfer, who wrote the Oscar-nominated “Sophie Scholl” is will participate in the 5th edition of ScripTeast as a Creative Advisor. Over 7 days of the workshop in Sterdyn, Poland, he will discuss the scripts submitted by the participating screenwriters at one-on-one meetings.

Educated as a lawyer and writer, Breinersdorfer wrote 12 novels and numerous theatre and radio plays before becoming a screenwriter. He’s an author of 65 screenplays, many of which were internationally recognized and awarded, including the German Film Award and Adolph Grimme Preis mit Gold - called “German Oscar”.

Breinersdorfer gained international acknowledgement as the author of "Sophie Scholl” - the shocking portrayal of one of the legendary fighters of the Nazi regime in Germany. The film was nominated to the Oscar and received 16 international awards, including two Silver Bears in Berlin - Julia Jentsch for The Best Actress and Marc Rothemund for the Best Director and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. International recognition of the film is a double success for Breinersdorfer, who was not its screenwriter, but also the co-producer. Breinersdorfer is a member of the German film Academy. He was the President of the German Writers Association and ran for the German parliament.

ScripTeast is a training program for existing scripts from Central and Eastern Europe. One-on-one meetings with international professionals in different creative disciplines allow the authors to sharpen their objectives for the story and determine the best way to tell it. For details, visit ScripTeast.

ScriptBase launches European script competition

ScriptBase, the online screenwriting community that was set up by writers from the Fade In group in Hungary, is launching a free online screenwriting competition. The site acts basically as a writers' group, with people reading and commenting on each others' work. As they are now adding a rating system, they are also starting a competition with a €1,000 prize. The basic idea is simple: post your project, get people to read it and hope that it gets a great rating. ScriptBase and Fade In are both writer-driven initiatives.

A quick glance revealed a strong number of entrants from Eastern Europe - which has a vibrant writing scene for the moment. If you have sometimes wondered who could read your script and give some sort of feedback, ScriptBase is definitely worth checking. I my opinion, the prize money is like icing on someone's cake.

For full details, check ScriptBase.

Macedonian-Polish action spec wins the first Central European Pitch Forum

I mentioned this event a few months back. Here is an extract from the (enthusiastic) press release concerning the winners. Nice to see a genre film picking up the main prize.

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Veteran Macedonian-born Swiss writer-director Mitko Panov took first prize and 5 thousand euro along with it at the closing event of the 2007 Fade In Central European Pitch Forum, the continent’s first story market, for his Balkan-set drama-actioner Witness.

The 2 thousand euro-worth special jury prize went to Paolo Poti from Italy for his drama screenplay "The God of the Hills", while the award for the best Eastern European screenplay was given to Hungarian writer team Péter Gál and Csaba Tóth for their chiller "Weekend". Young Hungarian director István Madarász got the Best Pitch award for the presentation of his unique action thriller "Loop". The lavish awards ceremony and networking dinner, attended by a hundred-plus film professionals from all across Europe, closed a very intense three days in Pécs in the south of Hungary. Beautiful weather was kind to the organizers, as the picture-perfect city—a European Cultural Capital-to-be in 2010—showed its most stunning faces to attendees of its international film festival Moveast and its flagship event pitch forum. 13 screenwriters from all over Europe showed up with 11 projects. Their screenplays were all written on spec—meaning the authors developed them on their own volition—so the writers arrived in the hope of selling their screen stories to the attending producers.

To find out more (and maybe present something next year), visit Fade In.

On the photo: president of the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe Christina Kallas listening to award-winning Polish director Kryzstof Zanusi. Photo by Laszlo Simara.

Fade In pitch fest calling for entries

A new pitch event is about to be launched. Fade In is a new script development outfit based in Hungary that has the ambitious plan to run a pitch contest with development and a cash prize as the main award. The Fade In Central European Pitch Forum will be held between 27 and 30 September 2007 at the Pécs International Film Festival in the south of Hungary. The event, basically a screenplay market, is designed to locate the hottest of the new screenwriting talent in the whole of Europe and facilitate their meeting with some of the best producers in the continent.

12 shortlisted writers will get an opportunity for a one-month online consultation session with acclaimed international story editors to perfect their scripts. After a rewriting period, between 27-30 September 2007 they are invited on an all-expenses paid trip to the Pécs International Film Festival. Following a two-day intensive pitch training from the best coaches the 12 writers can pitch their stories in front of 15 prominent European producers.

submissions are from March 1 to May 15.

Brussels fest salutes Hungary

The recent Brussels Film Festival split its foremost prize between two Hungarian films. The Iris award went to "Fresh Air/Friss Ievego" by Agnes Kocsis and "Taxidermia" by Gyorgy Palfi. Best performance went to Marjana Karanovic for her role in "Grbavica" (which also picked up the Canvas TV award). The RTBF TV award went to "Ping-Pong" by Germany's Matthias Luthardt. The Be TV Award went to Jens Lien's "Bothersome Man". "Ca rend heureux", a Belgian collective film directed by Joachim Lafosse picked up the Audience Award. There were no screenplay awards as such, but a competition for Best Concept (in essence, a pitch and summary) was won by Corinne Klomp and Pierre Leyssieux for "Gueule d'emploi" and "Westonia" by Olivier Nilsson-Julien & Andri Luup.

Go East to showcase best of Eastern and Central European cinema

The annual goEast festival in Wiesbaden, Germany, April 5-11, will again feature an exciting range of movies from this vast region. The festival throws its net wide, featuring everything from a major retrospective of mainstream Russian movies (including the best-known musical, "Volga Volga" from 1938) to the work of more obscure Lithuanian director Šarunas Bartas. There will laso be a retrospective of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski.

From their website: "goEast shows films that created a stir in their countries of making, attracted attention in the international media, represent the cutting-edge – or have already achieved the status of classics. The 2006 goEast Competition features ten fiction films and six documentaries; thirteen of these films are screening in Germany for the first time."

For details, check the goEast website.

Eurimages greenlights 10 co-productions

The Council of Europe's Eurimages has announced that a total of 10 projects will receive part of the €3.4 million co-production fund. They include "The Golden Door" from Emanuele Crialese (Italy), "Madonen" from Maria Speth (Germany) and "Opowiesci Galicyjskie" from Dariusz Jablonski (Poland). Eurimages is also supporting the distribution of "Der Untergang/Downfall" and "Gegen die Wand" (Germany), "Kontroll" (Hungary) and "Cowboys & Angels" (Ireland) in different European territories.

See the full story on Eurimages.

"Basic Instinct" writer looks at Hungarian water polo!

According to a report in Screen International, Joe Eszterhas, the Hungarian-born writer of "Basic Instinct", "Flashdance" and "Showgirls" is looking at dramatising the 1956 water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union. Against a backdrop of the Hungarian Revolution, the two teams met at the Olympic semi-finals in Melbourne. The ensuing match is considered to be one of the most violent sports events ever, leaving the pool red with blood.

Eszterhas is also the author of the aptly-named "Hollywood Animal", a tale of greed in movieland. Since contracting throat cancer, it was not felt he would return to writing. The as yet unnamed film is slated for a 2006 release, in time for the 50th anniversary of the match.

"Hollywood Animal" on Amazon US
"Hollywood Animal: A Memoir" on Amazon UK