Open call for sixth Baumi Script Development Award

• Development grant for outstanding international cinematic stories
• Applications until 15 October to baumi-award.com
• This year’s guest juror is the German filmmaker Maren Ade

Today sees the launch of the open call for the Baumi Script Development Award for the development of outstanding cinematic stories. German and international writers can submit applications to  www.baumi-award.com for the € 20,000 grant.

Initiated in 2015 by Martina and Sandra Baumgartner, Pandora Film and the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, the Award aims to facilitate free and independent script development and, at the same time, honour the memory of the film producer and distributor Karl ¨Baumi¨ Baumgartner and pay tribute to his special sense for stories and high-quality arthouse cinema.

The condition for participation is that one should have had at least one screenplay filmed and to submit applications along with a production company attached. A synopsis (3 – max. 5 pages) must be submitted in English. The Award consists of a prize sculpture and the prize-money for the further script development. The Award is presented during the 2021 Berlinale.

A jury consisting of the Award donors and one annually changing guest juror decides on the submissions.

The donors are delighted to welcome the director, author and producer Maren Ade to the jury this year. She became internationally known with “Toni Erdmann”. After the world premiere in the Cannes Competition 2016, the film was shown in cinemas in over 100 countries, won among others the European and German film awards and was nominated for the Oscar and the Golden Globe. Already her first feature film "The Forest for the Trees" was shown at many renowned festivals and won the jury award in Sundance 2005. Her second feature film "Everyone else" won two Silver Bears in the 2009 Berlinale competition. In 2017 she returned to Cannes as a member of the competition jury. In addition to her own films, Maren Ade also produces films by other directors ("Sleeping Sickness" by Ulrich Köhler, "Hedi Schneider is stuck" by Sonja Heiss, "Western" by Valeska Griesebach and many more). 

The directors Fatih Akin (2015), Aki Kaurismäki (2016), Bent Hamer (2018), Małgorzata Szumowska (2019) and actress Martina Gedeck (2017) were the guest jurors on the previous years.

The winner of the current Baumi Award 2020 is the South African writer Amy Jeptha with her treatment „Have you seen Rita?“. The project is currently in development with English producer Jack Tarling from Shudder Films. 

The Award’s founders would like to thank Friederike Zeit for the design and the making of the prize sculpture, Katja Clos for the graphics including the logo, and to Fritz Erler for the programming of the website.