03/09/2020 - The five professionals will select the five locations that will compete for best European film location of the year

(l-r) Matthijs Wouter Knol, Julie-Jeanne Regnault, Lori Balton, Valerio Caruso and Julian Newby

For the first time, the European Film Commissions Network (EUFCN) introduces the Location Award jury, a five-member jury of distinguished professionals that will select the five locations competing for the Location Award, the annual prize for European film locations organized by EUFCN in collaboration with Cineuropa.

Location scout and LMGI founding member and past president Lori Balton, Cineuropa director Valerio Caruso, European Film Market director (and soon European Film Academy director) Matthijs Wouter Knol, Boutique Editions Ltd. founder and editorial director Julian Newby and EFAD - European Film Agencies secretary general Julie-Jeanne Regnault will have the task of evaluating all submissions from EUFCN Member Film Commissions, revealing the five finalist locations of 2020.

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“We are very proud and honoured to have such experienced professionals from the industry playing an important part in the competition,” says EUFCN president Truls Kontny. “We are thankful for the time they will dedicate in the selection of the shortlist. The Location Award is one of EUFCN’s initiative we strongly believe in. It helps increasing the visibility of European locations all over the world and highlights the work done by the film commissions in our Network.”

The EUFCN Location Award was established in 2017, this is how it works: every year EUFCN members have the opportunity to candidate one location from a film, a TV series or a documentary shot in their country and released with international distribution that particular year. To be nominated for this year’s edition, the production associated with that particular location must have premiered in cinemas, festivals, TV, online or on digital platforms between 2 July 2019 and 20 September 2020. The external jury of five professionals selects the five locations in the shortlist and, starting from 9 November, the general public has the chance to vote for their favourite location on the Cineuropa website. One lucky winner is picked among the voters and wins a trip to the winning location.

Past winners of the EUFCN Location Award are the City of Gorlitz (Germany), for playing the title role in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile], the Island of Corfu (Greece), in recognition of the key role it played in the UK TV series The Durrells, and last year’s winner El Hierro, Canary Islands (Spain), intriguing setting of Spanish thriller TV series Hierro [+see also:
series review
interview: Jorge Coira
interview: Olivier Wotling
series profile].