April 12-19: Suzanne Pradel in the jury for Best Screenplay at Achtung Berlin – new berlin film award

As part of the jury for the BEST SCREENPLAY at the ACHTUNG BERLIN – new berlin film award, I am excited to see this year’s selection of feature films.

The film festival ACHTUNG BERLIN – new berlin film award presents current feature films and documentaries that have been realized either entirely or in part by a Berlin or Brandenburg film production and/or have a thematic connection to Berlin. The screening of the films will be accompanied by film talks with authors, directors, producers and distributors, who will inform about its production strategies.

JURY: 

FLORIAN PLUMEYER (* 1983 in Hannover), is a screenwriter and studied Theater & Media Studies in Erlangen and Athens as well as Screenwriting at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. Internationally awarded short films by him include Thieves and Her Son. In addition, he was a recipient of the Nuemberg Writers’ Fellowship. For the feature film Alle Wollen Geliebt Werden, he and Katharina Woll were awarded the Förderpreis for Best Screenplay at Filmfest München. His collaboration with Christoph Hochhäusler Bis Ans Ende Der Nacht(2023) was in competition at the 73rd Berlinale and won the Silver Bear for Best Acting Performance in a Supporting Role for Thea Ehre.

SUZANNE PRADEL is a creative content producer, script consultant, agent, writer as well as a script expert for various European funders. She is a member of the European Film Academy (efa), the Association of Film Dramaturgy (VeDRA) and the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (ewa), whose “Female Scriptwriter’s Residency” she supervised as Script Consultant. She is also the founder of BuchScout & SerienScout Agency Berlin, which specializes in the development and marketing of European feature films and series. Thus, she was involved in the creation of successful and award-winning films, such as most recently at the Berlinale Competition 2023 Ingeborg Bachmann – A Journey Into The Desert by Margarethe von Trotta or the Gran Prix winner at the Tokyo International Film Festival Vera Dream Of The Sea by Kaltrina Krasniqi. She is active as a lecturer and speaker at international workshops and festivals (EAVE, Bosphorus Film Lab, Antalya Film Festival, ..)

KERSTIN POLTE is a director, screenwriter and part of the feminist filmmaker collective r.O.K.S. She completed her film education in Canada, at the HfG Karlsruhe and at the Zurich University of the Arts. She was also a scholarship holder at the Drehbuchwerkstatt München. Her films have screened at numerous renowned festivals, including the Locarno International Film Festival. Her feature film Wer hat eigentlich die Liebe erfunden? was awarded the Bavarian Film Prize, among others. She wrote and directed the TV film Immer der Nase nach (ZDF) and was part of the directing team for the 1st season of the series Wir (ZDF Neo/Mediathek). Furthermore, she developed and directed the series Becoming Charlie (ZDF Neo/Mediathek), which was nominated for the German Television Award and the Grimme Award, among others.


LOS PEQUENOS AMORES by Celia Rico will be released in 2023

BuchScout is happy to announce that “LOS PEQUENOS AMORES” the latest film from Celia Rico who made a splash at the 2018 San Sebastian Festival with “Journey to a Mother’s Room,” has been acquired for international sales by Spain-based Latido Films.

Celia Rico won the Female Scriptwriter’s Residency Berlin – a collaboration between the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (ewa) and BuchScout Agency Berlin – in 2020 and was script advised by Suzanne Pradel.

The film was produced by Barcelona-based Arcadia Motion Pictures.

Rico’s second feature is set in a bucolic countryside. It weighs in as a mother-daughter two-hander sparked after strongly independent mother Ani falls over walking the dog and is forced to use a wheelchair to get around. Daughter Teresa cuts short a vacation to come to her side, their co-habitation grating and revealing multiple – sometime generational – differences as the film peels back the layers of their relation, exposing both women’s ambitions and fears.

Adriana Azores (“Grand Hotel,” “Velvet”) plays Ani, María Vázquez (“Eye for an Eye,” “Offworld”) is Teresa.

Spain-based platform Filmin, RTVE and Catalonia regional pubcaster TVC boarded the project early on in production. Rico’s feature is also backed by Spain’s ICAA and Catalonia’s ICEC, the territories’ film-TV agencies, as well as France’s CNC and European Union’s Media Programm. “Los pequeños amores” is scheduled for release in 2023.