The 2022 Eurimages Co-Production Award will be awarded collectively to all Ukrainian producers in a show of solidarity in a year in which Ukraine’s film and TV industry have been devastated by the Russian invasion.
The prize, a joint initiative between the European Film Academy and Eurimages, the cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, is normally given to an individual producer who has been active in terms of co-productions.
The award was created to acknowledge the decisive role co-productions play in fostering international exchange.
Past recipients have included Norway’s Maria Ekerhovd (2021), Luís Urbano (2020), Ankica Jurić Tilić (2019), the Netherlands’ Leonine Petit (2016), Italy’s Andrea Occhipinti (2015) and France’s Margaret Menegoz (2007).
“Exceptionally, this year’s Eurimages Co-Production Award is given to not one, but all producers of Ukraine, as an expression of strong appreciation for the growing quality of Ukrainian production in the past years, and as a sign of ongoing support now that the infrastructure for production support within Ukraine has collapsed,” the two bodies said in a joint statement.
“In 2022, Eurimages and the European Film Academy (EFA) wish to express their full support to Ukrainian film producers and for efforts to give continuity to the film industry in these difficult times,” it continued.
The award will be presented by a delegation of Ukrainian producers who are EFA members at the ceremony of the 35th of European Film Awards on December 10 in Reykjavík.
Ukrainian films to have made it to the nomination stage in the upcoming awards include Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Reflection which is the running for Best Feature Film while Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s Pamfir has been nominated for European Discovery – Prix Fipresci.
In addition, there are two co-productions involving Ukraine in the running. Danish director Simon Lereng Wilmont’s A House Made Of Splinters, about a children’s home in Eastern Ukraine, is nominated for Best European Documentary and Czech filmmaker Peter Kerekes’ 107 Mothers, about female prison inmates in Odesa who are incarcerated with their children, which is also in the running for the European Discovery – Prix Fipresci.
