Editor

During the CineMart 2010 Closing Night Party, Wednesday February 3, 2010 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, the Arte France Cinéma Award went to CineMart 2010 Project LAYLA FOURIE by Pia Marais (Germany / South Africa / The Netherlands).
The Prince Claus Fund Film Grant was awarded to CineMart 2010 Project BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK by Anocha Suwichakornpong (Thailand).

Arte France Cinéma Award
The Arte France Cinéma Award (10,000 Euro) for the Best CineMart 2010 Project is given to LAYLA FOURIE by Pia Marais, a co-production of Pandora Filmproduktion GmbH / DV8 Films / IDTV Film B.V. (Germany / South Africa / The Netherlands).

Layla Fourie, a single mother in South Africa, is given the opportunity to get proper employment as a polygraphist for pre-employment tests at a casino complex. In the constantly present atmosphere of mistrust, lies and fear Layla becomes a suspect herself of a murder happening on her first working day.

Pia Marais’ first feature film DIE UNERZOGENEN (THE UNPOLISHED) won a VPRO Tiger Award in 2007.

The Arte France Cinéma Awards Jury consisted of Rémi Burah and Antonin-Martin Hilbert (both with ARTE France Cinéma). The Arte France Cinéma Award is in cash, given to the producer(s) towards financing the development of the awarded project. With this Award, Arte France Cinéma and CineMart aim to further support and promote the development and production of independent filmmaking.

Prince Claus Fund Film Grant
The tenth Prince Claus Fund Film Grant of 15,000 Euro has been awarded to the CineMart 2010 Project Project BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK by Anocha Suwichakornpong (Thailand). The storyline chronicles the adventures and misadventures of a strong woman who is looking for freedom in the way she lives. Despite its metaphorical sounding title, the film is based on the physical realities of everyday life.

The jury is impressed by the use of unconventional ‘episodic’ storytelling to evoke a strong and highly personal perspective on contemporary Thailand. The story is only advanced by the inner desires of the main character, while exploring the physical realities of everyday life and digging deep into the landscapes, whether they be the factories and high rise buildings of the expanding mega polis of Bangkok or the natural beauty of Thailand. It is a portrait of Thailand that will never make it to the tourist-billboard dotted Bangkok. BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK will be the second feature film of a young, yet mature filmmaker that has already impressed the jury with her first feature film MUNDANE HISTORY, supported by the Hubert Bals Fund and currently in competition at IFFR.

The script evokes a strong and unique perspective on Thai culture; as marvelous sceneries combined with images and sound overtake established conventions of storytelling. To quote director Anocha Suwichakornpong, ‘It is my intention to make a film that digs deep into the landscapes, whether they be the man-made landscape or the natural landscape [....] it is the heroine’s inner conflicts and her emotions which remain the core of the story, and thus the main subjects of study in this film.’

The Prince Claus Fund Film Grant is awarded annually in cooperation with CineMart to support the very first creative phase of the development of a film production. Every year, the Film Grant is presented to a CineMart project by a filmmaker from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Caribbean, and selected for its excellent concept and innovative quality by an international expert jury.

The Jury of the 2010 Prince Claus Fund Film Grant consists of: Bregtje van der Haak, chair (The Netherlands), political scientist, journalist, documentary maker and member of the Prince Claus Fund Board; Maartje Nevejan (The Netherlands), documentary maker; Karim Traïdia (Algeria / The Netherlands), film maker; Violeta Bava (Argentina), Co-Director of Buenos Aires Lab, Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente and Peter Rorvik (South Africa) director of Durban International Film Festival.