El Hierro awarded Best European Film Location of 2019
by Cineuropa
- BERLINALE 2020: EUFCN and Cineuropa announced the winner of the third edition of the EUFCN Location Award at Berlinale's European Film Market
The island of El Hierro is the winner of the third edition of the EUFCN Location Award, the award for best European location in the film and TV industries organized by EUFCN (European Film Commissions Network), in collaboration with Cineuropa.
The smallest of the Canary Islands, and the most westerly point of Spain, has been chosen from among 10 European locations for playing the perfect setting for Spanish thriller TV series Hierro [+see also:
series review
interview: Jorge Coira
interview: Olivier Wotling
series profile], created by Pepe Coira and directed by Jorge Coira.
During the first phase of the competition, each EUFCN member had the opportunity to submit one location from a film, a TV series or a documentary shot in their country and released between January 2018 and July 2019. Ten wonderful locations were shortlisted, and the general public had then the chance to vote for their favourite on the Cineuropa website (see here). One lucky winner was picked among the voters and won a trip to El Hierro.
“EUFCN, as the network of all film commissions in Europe, wants to highlight the importance of locations and the work done by our members by giving out this Location Award” says EUFCN president Truls Kontny. “We are proud to do so for the third year in collaboration with Cineuropa and EFM. It is a great honour and also a great pleasure to hand out this prize to such a wonderful location and to such a hard working film institution.”
The award was received by Natacha Mora, director of Canary Islands Film during the EUFCN Location Award Ceremony that kicked off the 2020 EFM Landmark at the 70th Berlinale's European Film Market. She said, “I want to thank EUFCN on behalf of all the Canary Islands. It is an honour to be acknowledge as best European film location of the year. El Hierro is the smallest island in the archipelago and has truly magical landscapes. The success of the series Hierro translates into the upcoming second season, which will start shooting soon. We are sure everyone is really excited about this award, from the film crew to El Hierro residents and the series’ fans.”
The candidates for the 2019 EUFCN Location Award were: Athens, Greece (Hellenic Film Commission), Vilnius, Lithuania (Vilnius Film Office), Delphi Theatre, Germany (Berlin Brandenburg Film Commission), Dorfulija, North Macedonia (North Macedonia Film Agency), Luggala, Ireland (Screen Ireland), Lviv, Ukraine (Lviv Film Commission), Rocca Guidonesca di Rocchettine, Italy (Roma Lazio Film Commission), Royal Brussels, Belgium (screen.brussels), Završje-Piemonte d’Istria, Croatia (Istria Film Commission) and El Hierro, Spain (Canary Islands Film).
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