By the decision of Advisory Board members: Sandy Lieberson, Manfred Schmidt, Antonio Saura, Dariusz Jablonski and ScripTeast Heads of Studies: Tom Abrams and Christian Routh, the Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award was given to the scripts "The Japanese Dog" by Ioan Antoci (Romania).
The Advisory Board explained the choice in the following words: "In THE JAPANESE DOG Ioan Antoci has crafted a moving and thought-provoking script that promises to deliver a richly satisfying cinematic experience. Underlying the deceptively simple da-ily struggles of the memorable village characters he has created are universal themes that we hope will enable it to resonate with audiences across the world, once the film is made. These themes, confronting issues of family, grief, and faith, amongst others, are handled in a sensitive and char-ming way that belies the screenwriter’s relative inexperience. His all too recognizable characters are flawed individuals, who are ultimately redeemed through their own innate goodness, so that in the end the script is life affirming, and will have audiences crying with tears of joy. It is a worthy winner of this year’s Kieslowski ScripTeast Award."
The author of the winning script received the unique statue by Adam Fedorowicz and 10000 euros money prize. The following scripts, representing 7 countries of Eastern and Central Europe have been competing for the prize: Clear Picture, Izabela Szylko (Poland), Collapse, Andrzej Golda (Poland), Driving Lenin aka Lenin's Curse, Maria Graczyk (Poland), A Friend of Mine, Mart Kivastik (Estonia), I Married Al-Kaida, Andrej Kosak (Slovenia), Japanese Dog, Ioan Antoci (Romania), Laura and the Movies, Saulius Drunga (Lithuania), Night Boats, Igor Mirkovic & Elvis Bosnjak (Croatia), Retrace, Judit Elek & Laszlo Berger (Hungary), Security, Daniel Erdelyi (Hungary), Transfer, Artchil Khetagouri & Ileana Stanculescu (Romania).
A one-week session at Cannes focused on the promotion of the scripts among the European film-makers, which was supported by the co-operation with Producers Network (about 650 active pro-ducers accredited at IFF Cannes) and ACE (a club associating European producers), as well as meetings with representatives of the film funds and festivals. Since September 2008, the authors have been working on the scripts with help and advise of Creative Advisors – Andrew Birkin, Gordy Hoffman, Phil Hughes, Miguel Machalski, Roman Paul, George Sluizer and Michael Taylor.
