15/02/2022 - BERLINALE 2022: Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam’s project follows the story of a woman who decides to live out her desires in a country where women’s rights are heavily restricted

EFM head Martina Bleis presenting the Eurimages Co-production Development Award to the team behind My Favourite Cake

The 19^th Berlinale Co-Production Market (12-16 February) has handed out its awards during a ceremony which was hosted by Martina Bleis, the head of the market, who mentioned that more than 1,400 individual targeted meetings had been held for the 34 new feature-film projects in attendance (see the news), offering them the chance to meet the right international partners based on each project’s needs.

Iranian directorial duo Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam (Ballad of a White Cow [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) received the prestigious Eurimages Co-production Development Award, valued at €20,000, for their project My Favourite Cake [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which follows the story of an ageing woman who decides to live out her desires in a country where women’s rights are heavily restricted. The decision came from a jury comprising world-sales representative Sata Cissokho (Memento Films International), Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd (Mer Film) and Pablo Perez de Lema (ICAA), who represents Spain on the Eurimages board of directors. The project is being co-produced by Caractères Productions from France and Honare Khiyal from Iran.

The ArteKino International Prize, valued at €6,000, went to Girls Will Be Girls [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Indian filmmaker Shuchi Talati, as was announced by Annamaria Lodato and Rémi Burah, of ARTE France. In their justification, the jury stated: “We decided to give the award to a young filmmaker who’s preparing an exciting first feature. Inspired by personal secondary-school memories, the film will be a coming-of-age story involving a teenager who is opening up to love and sexuality, and a young mother who did not have a chance to fully live her youth. Both of them are subversive characters and want to shatter the limits of a conservative society.”

The project is being produced by Pooja Chauhan for Crawling Angel Films, who received the VFF Talent Highlight Award, to the tune of €10,000, after she pitched the project at the Talent Project Market, which is organised by the Berlinale Co-Production Market in cooperation with Berlinale Talents.

Finally, producers Kobi Mizrahi (KM Productions) from Israel, for the project Available Now by Assaf Machnes, and Bárbara Defanti (Sobretudo Produção) from Brazil, for the project Cachalote by Angelo Defanti, each received a token prize of €1,000.

Here is the full list of winners from the 19^th Berlinale Co-Production Market:

Eurimages Co-production Development Award
My Favourite Cake [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Maryam Moghaddam, Behtash Sanaeeha
Producers: Caractères Productions (France), Honare Khiyal (Iran)

ArteKino International Prize
Girls Will Be Girls [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Shuchi Talati (India)
Producer: Pooja Chauhan (Crawling Angel Films)

VFF Talent Highlight Award
Girls Will Be Girls

€1,000 Prize
Kobi Mizrahi (KM Productions) – producer of Available Now (Israel)
Bárbara Defanti (Sobretudo Produção) – producer of Cachalote (Brazil)