French-Portuguese filmmaker Maureen Fazendeiro’s co-production AS ESTAÇÕES awarded the VENTURA prize of €10,000

March 13, 2023

Fazendeiro’s project also received the Filmgarten and Atalante distribution prizes.

The further awards were as follows. The CINEMAR award went to MONTAÑA OU MORTE, the NUMAX award went to EL ALUMBRE, the CORMORÁN award went to MIL OURELAS and, finally, the DOC’S KINGDOM award went to DESPUÉS DE NADA.

The VENTURA international co-production forum was held on 8 and 9 March in Tui (Galicia), an event attended by a select group of production, programming, sales and distribution professionals from countries such as Switzerland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Serbia, Italy, Denmark and the United States, among others.

During two intensive days with project presentations (pitching sessions) and one-to-one meetings with professionals, the representatives of the projects selected for this first edition of VENTURA also presented their work to an international jury made up of the American filmmaker CW Winters, the French programmer Charlotte Serrand and the Greek producer Thanassis Karathanos, who decided to award the €10,000 VENTURA prize to the project AS ESTAÇÕES, by the filmmaker Maureen Fazendeiro, co-produced by Luís Urbano (O Som e a Fúria, Portugal), Valentina Novati (Norte Productions, France) and Beli Martínez (Filmika Galaika, Spain).

The ATALANTE (Spanish territory) and FILMGARTEN (Austrian territory) distribution awards also went to AS ESTAÇÕES (Maureen Fazendeiro, O Som e a Fúria, Norte Productions, Filmika Galaika); the CINEMAR sound award went to MONTAÑA OU MORTE (Pela del Álamo, Zeitun Films); the DCP and NUMAX deliveries award went to EL ALUMBRE (Alejandro Tarraf, Felipe Lage); the CORMORÁN visual effects award went to MIL OURELAS (Sebastián Uría, co-produced by Olaia Ledo and Oliver Laxe); lastly, the DOC’S KINGDOM award consisting of a grant to participate in a seminar went to DESPUÉS DE NADA (Carla Andrade, co-produced by Proxémica and Testaferro).

The first edition of VENTURA

This was the culmination of the first edition of VENTURA, a platform organised by the Play-Doc International Documentary Film Festival, conceived in three stages, each dedicated to professional training, project development and industry meetings for filmmakers and producers from all over the world, based in Galicia. In this first edition, VENTURA collaborated with:

  • A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JO. CHAPTER: PHAEDRA (Directed by Jacqueline Lentzou and produced by Andrea Queralt)
  • AS ESTAÇÕES (Directed by Maureen Fazendeiro and produced by Luís Urbano, Valentina Novati and Beli Martínez)
  • DESPUÉS DE NADA (Directed by Carla Andrade and produced by Pilar Monsell and Gonzalo E. Veloso)
  • EL ALUMBRE (Directed by Alejandro Tarraf and produced by Felipe Lage)
  • ELENA DIO A LUZ A UN HERMOSO NIÑO (Directed by Chiara Marañón and Juan Soto Taborda, and produced by Luís Ferron, Ricard Sales and Sandra Tabares Duque)
  • LA CASA EN LA FRONTERA (Directed and produced by Andrés Duque)
  • LA CHAMBRE D’OMBRES (Directed by Camilo Restrepo and produced by Helen Olive)
  • MARE’S NEST (Directed by Ben Rivers and produced by Andrea Queralt and Ben Rivers)
  • MIL OURELAS (Directed by Sebastián Uría and produced by Olaia Ledo and Oliver Laxe)
  • MONTAÑA OU MORTE (Directed by Pela del Álamo and produced by Pela del Álamo and Felipe Lage)
  • SERENA (Directed by Alessandro Comodin and produced by Thomas Ordonneau and Tommaso Bertani)
  • U SENCI ROGOVA (Directed by Ognjen Glavonić and produced by Dragana Jovović and Stefan Ivančić)

These 12 projects that participated in the forum were selected from 257 applications and represented 11 countries (Argentina, Colombia, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Serbia, and the United Kingdom).

VENTURA is a project funded with the support of the European Union – NextGenerationEU, the Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA) and the Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia. The Asociación Cultural enfoques is grateful for the collaboration of the Concello de Tui and Play-Doc, Tui International Film Festival.

Premiado