The 7th European Work in Progress (EWIP) Cologne has announced its 2024 award winners, with African filmmakers taking home prizes. The winners were announced on Tuesday, October 15.
Director Mbabazi Sharangabo Philbert Aimé from Rwanda won the European Work In Progress TorinoFilmLab Audience Design Award for Minimals in a Titanic World, while Kenyan filmmaker Zipporah Nyaruri won the European Work in Progress mm filmpresse Award for Truck Mama.
Produced by Ishimwe Samuel, Minimals in a Titanic World is a drama about the complexities of loss and relationships. It follows Serge, a young individual who mysteriously passes away. This leaves his girlfriend and best friend navigating the loss together. Aime’s previous projects include The Liberators, Versus, I Got My Things And Left, Fish Bowl, and Waiting.
Truck Mama tells the story of a female driver of a 20-ton truck working East Africa’s “Devil’s Highway”, a famously treacherous road. Her life is transformed by the appearance of her youngest offspring. Nyaruri has previously worked on Zebu and the Photo Fish, AINBO: Spirit of the Amazon and Mama Emerre.
Other Winners
The news was made public via a LinkedIn post shared by Torsten Frehse of the European Work in Progress Cologne (EWIP). In the post, Frehse requested “a round of applause for the winner”.
Alongside the African filmmakers, other filmmakers who won awards include Greek director Elina Psykou, who took the top prize, which comes with €10,000 for her project Sea of Glass (Thalassa apo gyali). German actress Saralisa Volm took home €5,000 for her project Truth or Dare.
The European Work in Progress MMC Studios Award was shared by German producer Eike Goreczka and Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev. They received €10,000 for their collaborative project Made in EU.
Alex Camilleri, Fred Burle, and Oliver Mallia were also recognised with the European Work in Progress MMC Studios award’s €5,000 prize for their film Zejtune.
Other notable winners included Christian Jilka, who received the European Work in Progress LAVAlabs Moving Images Award for Lost Land, and Marina Perales Marhuenda, who won the European Work in Progress Gruvi Award for Balearic.
Cattleya Paosrijaroen and Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke received the European Work in Progress Way Film Translation Award for A Useful Ghost (Pee Chai Dai Ka). Paul Magnus Lund rounded out the winners, securing the European Work in Progress usheru Award for The Badgers (Grevlingene).
What is the EWIP?
The European Work in Progress is an independent industry event taking place during the Film Festival Cologne for producers and distributors of films with a “high-quality appeal and crossover market potential”, the event “intends a wider focus towards world sales distribution and TV broadcasting companies.”
The programme is linked to the recently launched African-European Distribution Academy (AEDA).
This year, the EWIP jury was tasked with choosing winners from 29 film projects, which were selected from over 220 submissions. Among the 29 was a Nigerian project from actor-director Daniel Etim-Effiong. Titled The Herd, it was one of three projects under a Focus on Africa programme. The other two projects in the programme are the aforementioned winners.
