Hartley-Merrill Eastern-European Achievements

2004 EASTERN EUROPEAN SCREENWRITING LAB
Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
Master Instructor: Dr. James Ragan

ROMANIA
Tudor Voican – 2004 Eastern European Lab
Exchange
His script - Schimb Valutar/Exchange – will enter in production on August 15th of this year. The budget is USD $500,000.00 financed by the Romanian Center for Cinematography, Romanian National Television and the private production company, Ager Film.

CZECH REPUBLIC
Marek Epstein
Rhubarb
Rhubarb was produced, but has not been released. He is currently looking for funding for his second Hartley-Merrill Prize winning script.


SLOVAKIA
Laura Sivakova- The Taste Of Life-Name Change: Heaven, Hell…Earth

Laura completed 12 shooting days for her film, but stopped for a while because of a money shortage. The film is produced by Trigon Productions: they won an Emmy Award for the movie "Winton- The power of good.” Her producer is Patrik Pass. She does not know when she will continue. She tried asking Czech TV for help and Poland TV, because the cast is international; the leading actor is from Poland. She casted in Poland, Czech Republic and The Slovak Republic. The leading actors are Zuzana Kanocz -Slovak Republik; Bronislaw Wroslawski- Poland; Dagmar Blahova- Czech Republic; Dagmar Edwards – Slovak Republic; and she would like to cast the director of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival Jiri Bartoska whom she also says is a very good actor. In the movie will be also several dancing scenes, which will are cast by real ballet dancers from National Theatre of Slovak Republic. She hopes to continue so that next year she can release it.

CROATIA
Iva Kapetonivich-Red Danube
Iva is currently rewriting, and her script Red Danube is being reviewed by Dr. Linda Seger.

2005 EASTERN EUROPEAN SCREENWRITING LAB
Warsaw, Poland-Master Instructor: Syd Field
Suzana finished her first film the 72 Minute “The Silence.” Slovak TV is sending it on festivals. The film was awarded with three prizes – Best Actress and two to Zuzana for screenwriting and directing. She also was awarded the prize for Best Film of the Viegrad Countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) from the Czech Republic’s Minister of Culture. She was also recognized by the Festival for Children and Youth in the Czech Republic, and the Lagow Film Festival in Poland. Currently, she is writing for a television series, finishing her P.h.D. studies and working on a rewrite of her Hartley-Merrill Script The House.
Top - Zuzana Liová (Slovakia) chats with Eastern European Lab Instructor Syd Field at the closing ceremony.

SLOVAKIA
Zuzana Livona - TIBOR VICHTA AWARD

Zuzana Livona
The Silence
Slovak Republic, 2005Original Title: TichoDirectors: Zuzana LiováScreenwriter: Zuzana LiováEditor: Marek KráľovskýDir. Of Photography: Martin ŠtrbaAwards: Igric 2005 For Best Actress (Táňa Radeva); Premium (Zuzana Liová) – Annual Awards Of Literary Fund, Slovak Film Union And Union Of Slovak Television Workers

BULGARIA
Krasimir Kramilov

Krasimir’s winning script A Heart's Say is currently being read by a couple of European investors, who may or might not decide to put some money into it.

In the meantime, the latest script Salvation just advanced to the quarterfinals (top 25%) of the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards. This year 2,519 scripts from 39 countries compete for the prize.

CZECH REPUBLIC

The 2006 winner Vaclav Marhoul the former head of Barrandov Stusios is trying to find financing now for Tobruk, but is finding it to be difficult.

HUNGARY
Csaba Toth, Peter Gal

Last year’s winners, the writers of Weekend Csaba Toth and Peter Gal also won a screenwriting award at the Film.hu Pitch Forum in the fall of 2007. They also have attached a producer to their film and are beginning to work on a new script. Producer/Director-Writer team Peter Fazakas and Csaba Csurgo has finished shooting their Hartley-Merrill winning script, PARA during the fall of 2007. Previous winner, Mihaly Schwechtje is continuously making short films and completing his directing degree at the University of Film. His Hartley-Merrill winner script have found a producer and they have been working on the realization of the project.