REALNESS – An Africa Screenwriter’s Residency
REALNESS WELCOMES NEW PARTNERS + SPOTLIGHT AT WORLD CINEMA FUND DAY AT BERLINALE 2016
In November 2015, Urucu Media announced the call for submissions for REALNESS, a Pan African screenwriter’s residency. Thus far over 80 submissions have been received, with 40% of them coming from outside of South Africa. The scope of writers ranges from established writer/directors to self-taught, emerging talent. Realness recently partnered with EAVE and Torino Film Lab.
The aim of REALNESS is to provide the continent's best emerging writing talents with the necessary time, space and support to develop their unique cinematic vision. Residents will receive a stipend of R15,000 and all food and accommodation expenses will be covered for the duration of their stay. Realness claims no rights over the developed work. They stay with the writers.
EAVE is Europe’s leading training, development and networking organization for audiovisual producers. EAVE has committed to selecting one of the five projects and its producer to participate at the EAVE 2017 PRODUCERS WORKSHOP, consisting of three one week residential workshops in Europe. The EAVE scholarship would cover the participation fee, room and board for all three workshops.
Torino Film Lab is a year-round, international laboratory that supports emerging talents from all over the world – with a special attention to those working on their first and second fiction feature films – through training, development, funding and distribution activities. TFL has come on board with an award for one of the projects’ producers to attend their co-production market in November 2016. Torino Film Lab will provide accommodation, meals and accreditation for the participating producer and a representative of Realness.
Next March Elias Ribeiro, founder of Urucu and Realness, will attend TalentX, Realness was awarded a scholarship to attend this conference held in Amsterdam hosted by Creative England in partnership with the Danish Film Institute, the Irish Film Board and Netherlands Film Fund, and with the support of the Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme of the European Union. Talent developers will take part in a learning and ideas exchange focusing on the challenges and opportunities facing feature film talent in the ‘real world’. Elias will be part of discussions with other development initiatives about how the industry can collectively shape a fresh approach to supporting film talent from first feature to second, third and beyond.
The final selection of the 5 residents will be announced at an event hosted by the pavilion Les Cinemas du Monde in Cannes, 2016. Residents will prepare to present their projects in the framework of Durban Film Mart, starting on the 16th of June. And then settle into the idyllic Nirox Artist Residency in the Cradle of Humankind, where over 6 weeks, they will work on a new draft their feature screenplays.
Submissions close on the 31st of January. More information regarding submission materials can be found at www.urucumedia.com/realness
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