Three films supported by the EU’s Creative Europe MEDIA programme received awards at the Cannes Film Festival 2017.
An art world satire “The Square” (Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark) by Ruben Östlund won the highest prize ‘Palme d’Or’. The film tells the story of a father respected for his human values and the quality of his work in a Swedish contemporary art museum, but whose principles are shaken by a profound existential crisis.
“The Square” received EUR 47.000 for its distribution across Europe. The second awarded film supported by the MEDIA programme this year was “The Killing of a sacred Deer” by Yorgos Lanthimos (Ireland, UK, Greece). It won the prize for the Best Screenplay. It was supported at the earliest stages of its development with EUR 58.000, and at the distribution stage through an additional EUR 179.000.
In the section ‘Un Certain Regard’, the third MEDIA-supported film “Barbara” directed by Mathieu Amalric, was awarded the Prize for Best Poetic Narrative. Vice-President Andrus Ansip, responsible for the Digital Single Market, said: “My warmest congratulations to the winners. It is once again a great success for the European film industry and the MEDIA programme. We will continue our efforts to support the circulation and promotion of European films across our continent and help European cinema make the most of the digital age.“
This year, in total 20 films screened at the Festival had been developed or distributed with support of more than EUR 1.6 million from the EU’s Creative Europe MEDIA programme. This is the third year in a row that a film supported by Creative Europe MEDIA receives the prestigious Palme d’Or after “I, Daniel Blake” in 2016 and “Dheepan” in 2015.
