Two CineLink Projects in the Competition Programme of the 60th Berlinale

Film by the Romanian director Florin Şerban “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle” has been selected for the Competition Programme of the 60th Berlin International Film Festival. This news is of great importance for the Sarajevo Film Festival as this project has been developed within the Festival’s project CineLink.

“If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle” was developed through the CineLink Project Development Workshop in 2008 and took part in the CineLink Co-Production Market the same year, where it won the Magic Box Award. In the following year, the project was, this time while in postproduction, selected for the CineLink 2009 Work in Progress and, together with another 4 high profile projects in postproduction, presented at closed screenings reserved for selected festival, sales and distribution executives. In addition, it competed for the Work in Progress Award in the postproduction services worth 80.000 EUR provided by the Berlin-based postproduction facility The Post Republic. The jury: Rebekka Garrido, Laurent Danielou and Bernd Buder selected “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle” for the award, which was presented to Florin Şerban, the director of the film, at the official Award Ceremony of the 15th Sarajevo Film Festival.

To remind you, along with “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle”, film “Honey” by the multiple awarded Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu will be screened at the Competition Programme of this year’s Berlinale. Film “Honey” has also participated both at the CineLink Project Development Workshop and at the CineLink Co-Production Market in 2008.

Apart from the film “On the Path” by Jasmila Žbanić, the only representatives of Southeast Europe in the Competition Programme of the 60th Berlinale are two films developed trough CineLink: “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle” and “Honey”.

International Film Festival in Berlin will take place February 11-21, 2010.