LITHUANIA
WINNERS OF THE 7TH BALTIC PITCHING FORUM ANNOUNCED
The 7th edition of “Baltic Pitching Forum”, which took place on 10–12th of October in Vilnius, has come to an end. This year the Forum expanded its horizons by inviting Finland as a Guest Country. Three Finnish short film projects participated at the Forum alongside Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian filmmakers and presented their newest short film ideas in front of the International Panel and Lithuanian Producers’ Jury.
Latvian director Kristīne Vītola and producer Lelde Prūse won an invitation to participate in the European Short Film Co-Production Forum Euro Connection as part of the 42nd Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in February 2020 with a fiction short film project “The Deer” that tells a coming-of-age story of 19-year-old Hans, who does not know what to do with his future.
Latvian director Anna Zača and Lithuanian co-producer Agnė Adomėnė received an invitation to the international scriptwriting workshop and co-production event “European Short Pitch 2020” organized by “Nisi Masa — European Network of Young Cinema ”. Their winning animation project “Penthouse for Short People” tells a story about Indra, who is in search of a place where she could raise her child. She come across the advertisement of a “Penthouse for Short People”, but while having a private viewing of apartment, she begins to fear about her life. This is already a third award for Lithuanian producer Agnė Adomėnė, who has won two previous awards at “Baltic Pitching Forum” with directors Skirmanta Jakaitė and Birutė Sodeikaitė.
This year‘s panel consisted of Anna Henckel-Donnersmark (Berlinale Shorts at International Berlin Film Festival, Germany), Marcin Łuczaj (“New Europe Film Sales”, Poland), Julie Rousson (Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and Market, Euro Connection, France), Julie Marnay (international scriptwriting workshop and co-production event “European Short Pitch”), Delphine Schmit (Tripode Productions, France), Sari Volanen (Finnish broadcasting company YLE).
Lithuanian short film project “Mothers” and its director Birutė Kapustinskaitė was awarded with Lithuanian Producers MEDIA Award, initiated by the Creative Europe Desk Lithuania MEDIA office with a value of 1000 euro. This film is B. Kapustinskaitė’s directing debut which will tell a story about Aldona, who’s pregnant daughter comes to visit her for a weekend to the seaside. But instead of building strong relationships, Aldona becomes very overprotective of her soon-to-be mother herself daughter.
“When making our decision we took into account presentation skills, production feasibility, artistic value of the projects at a present stage“, said Jury member producer Gabija Budreckytė.
Lithuanian Producers’ Jury that consisted of three producers Kęstutis Drazdauskas (Artbox), Rasa Miškinytė (Era Films) and Gabija Budreckytė (Kino Minds) decided to give special mention to Estonian fiction project “Mia and Liki” by director Katrin Tegova and producer Maario Masing, and Finnish animation project “Flower Show” by director Elli Vuorinen and producer Jani Lehto.
Baltic Pitching Forum is organized by Lithuanian Short Film Agency “Lithuanian Shorts” in partnership with Riga International Film Festival, Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS, PÖFF Shorts (Estonia) and Estonian Short Film Centre. It is supported by Lithuanian Council of Culture, Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture AVEK, Audiovisual Works Copyright Association AVAKA, Creative Europe Desk Lithuania MEDIA Office, Vilnius Film Office and Vilnius City Municipality.