EKRAN 2009 ENDED

THE 5TH EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR FILM PROFESSIONALS HAS COME TO AN END

The  5th edition of EKRAN – the International Programme for Film Professionals conducted by the Andrzej Wajda Film School came to an end. A guest Master class on the role of music in film took place during the final session and was run by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek. Among this year's tutors were: Andrzej Wajda, Wojciech Marczewski, Volker Schloendorff, Witold Stok.

EKRAN is a European training programme for film professionals, focusing on the creative pre-production process. Its main goal is to develop a project and produce two scenes from each script. In this year's edition of the programme there were 11 teams, each consisting of a director, a screenwriter, a producer and a DOP.

Among the Polish participants there were: Marcin Wrona (together with Marek Stokowski), Michał Rogalski and Michał Otłowski.  Also well-known producers participated at this year's EKRAN: the German project 'Sonemaenner' by Ingo Haeb is supported by Peter Rommel (the producer of ' Halbe-Treppe') and 'The Summer Solstice' by Michał Rogalski is produced by Jan Dworak.

Apart from the Polish filmmakers, there were also participants from Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Holland and Great Britain. Participants developed their feature film projects and shot the selected scenes from their scripts. The last, third session of the programme involved shooting scenes/ sequences with actors from the native countries of directors. The entire session lasted 12 days – 11 professional film sets were prepared during four days. The etudes were systematically edited at the Andrzej Wajda Film School and discussed on the last day of workshops. 

EKRAN is one of the few programmes in Poland co-financed by the MEDIA programme. It is  prepared in cooperation with the most important film institutions in Europe: the FOCAL Foundation from Switzerland, the Norwegian Film Development, the Nordhein-Westfalen Filmstiftung and the IFS Internationale Filmschule Köln, the International Film School Wales,  the Netherlands Film Institute and the Polish Film Institute.

The participants of the previous editions of the programme were, among others: Dariusz Gajewski ('Warszawa [Warsaw]'), Anna Jadowska ('Teraz Ja [It's Me Now'), Leszek Dawid ('Moje Miejsce [My Place') and a documentary filmmaker Grzegorz Pacek ('Jestem Zły [I'm Bad'), Agnieszka Smoczyńska ('Aria Diva'), Norah McGettigan ('Jak to jest być moją matką [What it's Like To Be My Mother]'). Out of 22 projects developed at EKRAN 2004 and EKRAN 2006  three of them have been produced so far: the film by Anna Jadowska, 'Teraz Ja,' which won  a debut director award at the Gdynia 2006 Polish Film Festival and a number of other awards, 'Out of Ropes' by Fulvio Bernasconi, whose  premiere took place at the International Film Festival in Locarno 2007 – it was awarded the Best Actor Prize and 'Ma Salama Jamil'  by Omar Shargavi, produced by Zentropa – the winner of VPRO Tiger Award at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam 2008. Five other projects are in the midst of production process.

The next edition of EKRAN will be launched in March 2010 and the following sessions are planned for April and June.  Apart from Andrzej Wajda and Wojciech Marczewski, among the tutors will be: Agnieszka Holland, Allan Starski and Volker Schloendorff. The deadline for sending applications is 15 November 2009. Please send it to: Mistrzowska Szkoła Andrzeja Wajdy, Chełmska 21, 00-724 Warszawa.

Organizers and participants of the EKRAN 2009

 

(June 2009)