Calcio Storico triumphs at 3D Film Mart

Italy/France co-production Calcio Storico has won the main award at this year’s 3D Film Mart, which ran Dec 4-5 as part of the 3D Stereo MEDIA in Liège, Belgium.

A documentary about the yearly event in Italy which sees the four historical suburbs of Florence meet up for a football tournament, Calcio Storico is currently in pre-production and will receive a €3,000 prize.

On receiving the award, Michael Caranicolas of Cow Prod thanked 3D Film Mart and its organisers TWIST Cluster, the University of Liège and peacefulfish for the fact that he came to the market “with an idea and we’re going home with a film”.

20 projects were pitched over the two-day event, with Camera Lucida productions’ Leonardo da Vinci and Germany/Norway co-production Richard the Stork also shortlisted for the main award.

Speaking to Screen, Pierre Collin, executive manager of TWIST, said that this year’s market exceeded expectations. “Our objective was 60 people,” explained Collin. “We are happy this year because we’ve fulfilled our objectives in terms of audience with more than 100 people registered or attending the market.”

Collin was also pleased that this year saw them attract key players of the 3D industry for the jury, such as Anthony Geffen of Atlantic Productions and Sophokles Tasioulis of Red Bull Media House.

2012 marked the second edition of the market and Collin noted that when they started with the idea for a market – the first of its kind in Europe – they had a three-year maturity plan. Next year will see the market focus on the projects themselves, ensuring that the producers are fully prepared potentially with the aid of workshops throughout the year.

“Maybe to give more assistance to the producers who attend the market with their project, to help them to have more assistance on technical things for instance,” noted Collin. “We’ll organise meetings on the techniques to help them organise their budget properly and of course, we’re going to focus on the main thing also: the quality of the stories.”

During a gala evening held last night (Dec 6) at the Royal Opera House of Liège, awards were also handed out for the other strands of 3D Stereo MEDIA. These included the 3D Film Festival, with Canadian horror Dead Before Dawn 3D and Sun Lijun’s The Legend of Kung Fu Rabbit among the winners, and the AWEX Prize (awarded to a Belgian company particularly active in 3D outside Belgium) which went to Alterface.

This year, the International 3D Society (I3DS) also chose 3D Stereo MEDIA to host its inaugural I3DS-Europe Awards, open to major 3D productions from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Christian Ditter’s Vicky and the Treasure of the Gods and Martin Clapp’s The Magic Piano were among the main winners in the film categories, each scooping two awards, while best achievement in 3D animation went to nWave’s The Little Prince and Sky Italia’s The New Adventures of Peter Pan.