18.03.2009 - European Parliament Cinema Prize: the official selection for the 2009 LUX Prize unveiled on 12 June 2009
The jury for the 2009 LUX cinema prize will meet in Brussels on 19 March, then on 30 April and 28 May. The official selection of the films of the year will be revealed on 12 June, as part of the partnership between the European Parliament and the Brussels Film Festival. In september, the LUX Prize panel will name the three films which will take part in the competition. In November, the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will vote for one of these three films. The winner of the 2009 LUX Prize will receive funding for subtitling in each of the European Union’s 23 official languages, and a 35-mm copy per member state will be supplied.
Awarded every two years, the LUX Prize is an initiative of the European Parliament. The goal of the LUX Prize (the Latin word for light) is to promote the distribution of European productions within the European Union. As Jean-Pierre Dardenne said when receiving the 2008 prize last 22 October, “Being able to see other producers’ films is a real problem in Europe. The LUX Prize is a first step to solving it. I hope that everyone involved in distributing and screening movies throughout Europe will grasp the significance of this.”
Much like Le Silence de Lorna and Fatih Akin’s movie Auf der anderen Seite –respective winners in 2008 and 2007–, the official selection of the Lux Prize spotlights films that question European integration via the values and the cultural diversity which support it.
Selection jury and eligibility criteria
One third of the selection jury being renewed yearly, its members are designated by the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education. All members come from the cinema industry : a representative of the previous winning film has a seat; a representative of the MEDIA programme will attend jury deliberations for the first time as an official observer.
Films meeting the following criteria will be eligible by or submitted to the jury:
Genre: Fiction or animation films;
Length: At least 60 minutes long;
Subject: Illustrating or questioning the universality of European values,
European cultural diversity, and/or bringing insights into the
debate on the European union’s integration process;
Production: Produced or co-produced in countries eligible under the
MEDIA 2007 programme (European Union, Iceland,
Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland);
Cinema release: First release between 1 June 2008 and 31 May 2009.
The official selection will include ten films, ranked from 1 to 10. The top three will run in the competition for the 2009 LUX Prize. The winner will be announced on 25 November at the close of the screenings and voting by MEPs.
For more details, contact:
Bertrand PELTIER
Administrator, Directorate-General for Communication
European Parliament, Tel. +32 498 98 32 37
epfilmprizelux@europarl.europa.eu
www.lux-prize.eu
