Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten, a Swedish screenwriter from the Torino Film Lab was one of the international jury for The 4th film script competition at the seventh memory film festival (MSF), Myanmar.
The competition aimed to encourage Myanmar’s filmmakers. Six finalists were selected for a week-long education and competition session in Yangon, including directors, scriptwriters and producers from six finalist film projects at the Film Development Center. The winner was announced at the festival, at Waziya Cinema in Yangon on 19th November 2019.
The jury was chaired by French director Claude Mouriéras, along with Sophie Bourdon from the Locarno Festival, script lecturer Rachel Mathews, producer from JBA Production in France Marianne Dumoulin, Isabelle Glachant of Chinese Shadows from China and France, Vit Janecek, an academic at the FAMU in the Czech Republic.
“The MSF started in 2016 as an educational competition to keep developing and growing.” said Gilles Duval, the MSF co-founder.
“Making a quality film is a long process. The MSF is an important step because it exposes directors, scriptwriters and producers to international professionals,” “The road is long. In all countries, it takes between three and five years. So you have to be patient and one day the results will be there: a Burmese film in selection at an international film festival.” Mr. Duval added.
“All the finalists are already winners with the spotlight on six film projects.” said Séverine Wemaere, co-founder of the festival.”Organizations like the Locarno Festival and other A-list festivals will already be watching their development with interest,” she said.
The jury awarded four prizes along with two 2019 MSF script development awards. One awarded granted to Ko Myo Min Htwe for his film “Lucky”, and the other went to Ma San San Oo for her film “The Rooster”. Each winners received 1,000 euros (1.67 million kyats) for film script development
“This competition by MSF is really good for young filmmakers like me because we don’t have many film platforms to show our work.” Ma San San Oo said “I’m so happy to receive this award and will try to improve in the future,”
Ko Than Lwin Oo and producer Ma Poe Poe won the MSF Cinéfabrique Short Film Award with their film “Human”. The award gives support for the production of a short film with two industry specialists who will contribute to the preparation and shooting of a production in Myanmar. There is also a chance to spend four weeks working on post-production in France.
Ko Lamin Oo for his film “Garuda Dragon” won The 2019 MSF Open Doors Award , granted him a visit to the Locarno Festival in Switzerland next year.
The MSF is supported by the French and Swiss embassies, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Centre national du Cinéma et de l’image animée, Arte Cinema, Locarno Festival Open Doors and Forever Group
The seventh Memory Film Festival runs until 24th November 2019 at the Waziya Cinema and Mahabandoola Park. Admission is free for all movies.
