Dea Kulumbegashvili and Visar Morina have been named joint winners of the seventh Baumi Script Development Award by the jury and guest juror Ildikó Enyedi
Düsseldorf/Berlin, 8 June, 2022 The seventh year of the Baumi Script Development Award sees the €20,000 Baumi Script Development Award being shared in equal parts between the Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili for her treatment "Historia" and the German filmmaker Visar Morina for his project "Hatixhe and Shaban".
"With our decision to present the award to two filmmakers, we would like to support both of the outstanding projects by Dea Kulumbegashvili and Visar Morina at the same level. Although they have different approaches, both feature film projects describe great humanity and offer an accurate political picture of their characters and the societies they live in," this year’s guest juror Ildikó Enyedi said.
About the award winner:
Dea Kulumbegashvili grew up in Georgia. She studied Film Directing at Columbia University in New York. Following a number of successful short films, her debut feature Dasatskisi (Beginning) caused a sensation. The film was selected for the 2020 Festival de Cannes – which was subsequently cancelled due to Covid 19 – and it finally had its premiere at the San Sebastian Festival in autumn 2020. This was where the film won the Golden Shell for Best Film as well as the awards for Best Director and Best Actress and the Jury Prize for Best Screenplay. The film also won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.
About the Film / Jury statement:
The obstetrician Nina is working in a rural Georgian hospital where contraception and abortion are not accepted. But Nina – "a fallen angel" – does what no one else is prepared to do. She risks her own life by performing illegal abortions for women who ask for her help.
Dea Kulumbegashvili creates a unique world of poetry in her feature film project "Historia". The mixture of realism and fantasy elements gives her idea a very special kind of approach.
About the award-winner:
Visar Morina was born and raised in Pristina, Kosovo, in former Yugoslavia. He studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. In 2015, his debut feature Babai was awarded the prize for Best Director in Karlovy Vary and three New Talent Awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor at the Filmfest München. His second feature film Exil premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020 and was presented in the Panorama section of the Berlinale.
About the film/ jury statement:
A family in rural Kosovo loses its farm and is forced to move to the city to earn a living.
Visar Morina’s feature film project describes a refugee story in his own country. "Hatixhe and Shaban" speaks about dignity and shame and is reminiscent stylistically of the films of Italian neorealism. A dramatic and honest story about identity in Kosovo, very close to the author Visar Morina’s own personal experiences.
About the award:
The Baumi Script Development Award was presented in February 2016 for the first time to honour the memory of film producer and distributor Karl 'Baumi' Baumgartner. The prize, which is endowed with €20,000 in prize-money, was established by the donors Martina and Sandra Baumgartner, Pandora Film, which 'Baumi' had co-founded, and the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. Screenwriters can apply for the award with an English-language treatment. A jury consisting of the founders and one annually changing international guest juror selects a story idea from the submissions.
The winner of the first Baumi Award was the Egyptian Omar El Zohairy (guest juror Fatih Akin), whose award-winning project "Feathers of a Father" premiered at Cannes' Semaine de la Critique in 2021. This was followed by Polish filmmaker Kuba Czekaj (guest juror Aki Kaurismäki), Syrian director Soudade Kaadan (guest juror Martina Gedeck), German author Martin Rehbock (guest juror Bent Hamer), South African Amy Jephta (guest juror Małgorzata Szumowska). Last year, the Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat was the winner of the Baumi Award which she received from the guest juror Maren Ade.
The Award’s founders would like to thank Katja Clos for the graphics and logo, Friederike Zeit for designing and making the prize sculpture, and Fritz Erler for programming the website.
For further information: Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Erna Kiefer, Tel.: +49211-9305022,