Awards in Pusan and San José

In January he received The FIPRESCI Award in Rotterdam for festival favourite Blind Pig Who Wants To Fly. Some eight months later Indonesian Edwin is back in the winners circle again. This time as the winner of the Göteborg International Film Festival Fund Award in Pusan, South Korea.

Göteborg International Film Festival has been in close connection with the Pusan festival since it’s launch 14 years ago. The Göteborg International Film Festival Fund has been cooperating with PPP (Pusan Promo tion Plan) for many years and co-finances part of the event and presents an award of SEK 25 000 to the project chosen by the Göteborg jury.

This year’s winner; Postcards from the Zoo, takes place in a zoo in Jakarta and is a visually exciting film about longing. The director Edwin won the FIPRESCI Award at this year’s Rotterdam festival for his Blind Pig Who Wants To Fly and will preferrably shoot the new film this spring.

– The film and the director felt right from the start for us. This type of cooperation is extremely important to our fund, since we, with the help from our colleagues in Pusan, get the best projects scouted for us. Then our work can be efficient and we can spend the money we have on the thing that has the highest priority: the films and the filmmakers, says Göteborg Fund manager Camilla Larsson.

Parallel l with Pusan Göteborg International Film Festival Fund visited San José in Costa Rica, where a three year old cooperation with the organization Cinergia continues to develop. This jury gave their Göteborg International Film Festival Fund Award, a post production support of SEK 100 000, to the documentary abUSAdos – La Redada de Postville from Guatemala. The film treats the situation of Central American immigrants in the USA and is directed by Luis Argueta.

In the end of november the Göteborg International Film Festival Fund will be presenting the development support line-up for this autumn.

Göteborg International Film Festival Fund is a unique fund supporting the development of the film industry in developing countries. The fund, financed by SIDA, started its work in 1998 and has up to this day supported more than 75 single film projects and many trai ning and formation programmes over the world.