The Balkan Fund, a script development initiative created in November 2002 by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, has handed out its latest grants to four new projects.

The projects that received $14,789 (Euros 10,000) each are:

Mother from writer/director Juraj Lertic and producer Dana Budisavljevic (Croatia)

Rio from writers Nicolas Panoutsopoulos and Argyris Germanidis and director/producer Nicolas Panoutsopoulos (Greece)

First of All, Felicia from writers/directors Melissa de Raaf, Razvan Radulescu and producer Ada Solomon (Romania)

The Poor Little Things from writer Onder Caka, director Ayhan Hacifazlioglu, and producer Sevil Demirci Cakar (Turkey)

Two special mentions went to:

Metastases from writer/director Branco Schmidt and producer Stanislav Babic (Croatia)

Some Other Stories from writers/directors Ana Maria Rossi, Ines Tanovic, Maria Dzidzeva, Hanna Slak and Ivonna Juka and producer Nenad Dukic (Serbia/Montenegro)

The winners were announced during the ongoing TIFF (November 16-25) by a four-member international jury comprised of Lenny Crooks of the UK Film Council, writer/director Richard Kwietkniowski, director/producer Tudor Giurgiu, and writer/producer/Balkan Fund artistic director Christina Kallas.

Funds for three of the four awards were provided by the Greek Ministry of Culture. The fourth was offered by the French CNC.

The Fund's awards (seed money for script development) are open to feature film projects coming from countries of the region, that is Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Fyrom, Greece, Rumania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.

The four winning projects were selected after a three day, open to the public and to festival guests, pitching session by the directors and screenwriters of 13 shortlisted projects.

The international profile of the Balkan Fund received a substantial boost during the last two years. Jasmila Zbanich's Grbavica, the Bosnia & Herzegovina production, won the Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear in 2006 after having been awarded a Balkan Fund script development grant in 2003. This year another past Balkan Fund participant, the Romanian production California Dreamin' by the late Cristian Nemescu was awarded the Certain Regard Grand Prix in Cannes.

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