EUROPEAN FORUM – Cannes leads the debate

The world of European cinema is to converge once more on Cannes for a conference envisioning a creative Europe, and the ceremony to award the MEDIA Prize to the Bosnian director Danis Tanović (Best Screenplay award in the Official Selection for No Man’s Land in 2001).

The outgoing European Commissioner for Education and Culture, Androulla Vassiliou, will take advantage of her final visit to the Festival de Cannes to present the new Creative Europe Project, building on the MEDIA and Culture programmes. The conference on Friday 16th May at 3:00 pm will be entitled “Political challenges for a creative Europe”.

On Saturday 17th May at 10:30 am, the European Commissioner will also award the European Union’s MEDIA Prize to filmmaker Danis Tanović, co-screenwriter Predrag Kojovic and producer Amra Baksic Camo for the project What are you looking at?, the story of a post-war town’s descent into corruption. This prize, whose aim is to recognise European projects with strong potential, was awarded last year to Kollectivet (The Commune) by Thomas Vinterberg and the previous year to The Past by Asghar Farhadi. The prize-giving will be followed by a photocall, a reception and a walk up the red carpeted stairs in the presence of the European Commissioner. The MEDIA programme, launched in the European Union in 1991 to support and strengthen the film and audio-visual industry, is backing 21 films this year, across the various selections, at the 67th Festival de Cannes.

Charlotte Pavard