The project of director Linda Olte’s upcoming film “Bärns” has received an award for concept development at the Trieste International Film Festival in Italy, the representative of the Latvian National Cinema Center Kristīne Matīsa informs the “Delfi” portal. The film is created as a collaboration between producer Matīs Kaža and Italian and Lithuanian colleagues.
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For the fifth year already, the Trieste International Film Festival awards awards to film projects created in cooperation between Baltic States and Italian cinematographers. This year, by the decision of the international commission, three projects were awarded, and one of them, Linda Olte and Matīs Kaža’s design “Child”.
The award, which aims to promote the joint production of Italian and Baltic films, was established in 2018 through the cooperation of Italian, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian film institutions, and was included in the “When East Meets West” industry section of the Trieste International Film Festival. With this award, the total amount of which is 30,000 euros, the development of full-length feature films, full-length animations and full-length documentaries co-produced by Italy and the Baltic States is financed (the planned length of the film is at least 52 minutes).
According to Matīsa, the award stimulates cooperation between Italy and the Baltic states, encouraging film professionals from these countries to create joint projects. Funding for the awards is provided by the Direzione Generale Cinema of the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Estonian Film Institute, the National Cinema Center and the Lithuanian Cinema Center.
This year, three projects from Latvian film studios were submitted for evaluation by the expert commission, and one of them has attracted the attention of the jury – director Linda Olte’s second feature film “Bärns”, which receives 7,500 euros for the development of the project. The film is produced by the Latvian company “Trickster Pictures” and the producer Matīss Kaža in cooperation with the Italian studio “Albolina Film”, which is already a proven co-production partner – Linda Olte’s feature film “Sisters” (2022) and Matīs Kaža’s feature film “Wild East. Where the road will lead” (2021) were also made together – ; the Lithuanian studio “Afterschool Pictures” is also involved in the new project “Berns”.
According to Matīsa, representative of the National Cinema Center, the director is also in the new film Linda Olte will continue to solve socially relevant problems, as it did already in the movie “Sisters”, – the new project is conceived as a psychological drama, at its center – a couple who have been unsuccessfully trying to have a child for ten years.
Awarding the “Child” project, the jury emphasizes the skill of the project’s authors “to touch the fragile and complex topic of femininity, mother’s feelings and infertility in a sincere, intimate and careful way, emphasizing the woman’s point of view and the qualities of the story”.
This year, the award for Baltic-Italian co-productions was also awarded to the upcoming Italian-Estonian project “Altrove / Elsewhere” (directed by Iacopo di Girolamo) and the Lithuanian-Italian musical “Concrete Music” (directed by Saulius Baradinskas).
