Three European features will receive $15,000 (€10,000) in grants for script development from the Balkan Fund.

The three projects include Croatia-produced Mother of Asphalt, a German-Romanian co-production Romanian Spring, and OrangeGardens from Turkey. The grant will be used to develop the scripts by writer/directors Dalibor Matanic, Anca Miruna Lazarescu, and Özkan Küçük respectively.

Launched by the Thessaloniki Film Festival (TIFF) in 2003, the initiative is part of the European Film Funds Coordination scheme, which allocates money provided by the Greek Ministry of Culture and the French CNC.

This year’s international jury is comprised of Lenny Crooks, head of UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund; screenwriter/producer Christina Kallas, and screenwriter/directors Richard Kwietniowski and Razvan Radulescu.

Previous grant recipients include Un Certain Regard-winning California Dreamin’ and Snow which had won the Grand Prize at Critic’s Week in Cannes in 2008.

Previous winners Here & There (2006) and The Happiest Girl in the World (2007) will be shown at this year’s TIFF, which runs November 13-22.

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