The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s Eastern Promises industry strand has unveiled the winners of the five project showcases taking place within its auspices from July 3-5.
This year’s edition presented 35 feature film projects across five selections, spanning Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch, First Cut+ Works in Progress and Odesa International Film Festival Works in Progress presentations.
In the Works in Progress sidebar, the post-production development prize went to Yemeni director Amr Gamal’s The Burdened; the $5,100 TRT prize was awarded to Bulgarian filmmaker Paval G. Vesnakov’s Windless, and the Karlovy Vary IFF prize was clinched by Turkish director Kaveh Daneshmand’s Endless Summer Syndrome.
For the Works in Development – Feature Launch, the main KVIFF & Midpoint development award went to Swedish director Sophia Vuković’s My Best Friend’s Baby.
In the same section, the Connecting Cottbus Award was won by Polish filmmaker Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska’s Dolphin, while the film’s producer Magdalena Sztorc clinched the Rotterdam Lab Award, representing a place on the Rotterdam International Film Festival’s producers lab in 2023.
For the First Cut+ section, Canadian director Graham Foy’s The Maiden won the top $5,000 TRT prize, while the sci-fi work U Are The Universe by Ukrainian filmmaker Pavlo Ostrikov’s clinched the top $10,000 prize of the Odesa International Film Festival Works in Progress presentations, provided by the Czech Republic’s Barrandov Studios.