Golden Bear award goes to Eurimages-funded film “Grbavica”
The Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival has been awarded to Grbavica. This feature film, by Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic, is a European co-production between Austria, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and was backed by the Council of Europe’s Eurimages support fund.Grbavica. is the first full-length feature film made by Jasmila Zbanic, marking her directorial debut. This film looks at the consequences of the mass rape of women during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian war.
Eurimages is the Council of Europe’s fund for the co-production, distribution and exhibition of European cinematographic works. Since its creation in 1988, Eurimages has supported 1064 European co-productions to a total of more than 300 million euros.
There are currently 32 Council of Europe member states including Ireland which belong to Eurimages.
Two other Eurimages supported films, Joyeux Noël by Christian Carion and Paradise Now by Hany Abu-Assad have been nominated in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category for the 2006 Oscars that will be awarded on 5 March.