The Italian-Baltic co-production prize receivers 2026 have been selected

For the seventh year, the jury has selected projects that receive the Italian and Baltic co-production feature film development support award at the When East Meets West forum at the International Film Festival in Trieste (Italy). This year, the plans of all three Baltic states to cooperate with Italian film studios have been supported.

The total amount of support is EUR 40 000, which is allocated to three projects according to an expert decision, this time they are co-productions of the majority of Latvia, Estonia and Italy.

Latvian director Andris Gauja (studio Riverbed) intends to collaborate with colleagues from Italy, Estonia and Bulgaria, 10,000 EUR has been supported for the development of his documentary project Beautiful Death / Brīnišķīgā nāve. The partners of the project are the studios Mammut Film (Italy), Film Tower (Estonia), Agitprop (Bulgaria).

Support of EUR 10,000 will also be received for the upcoming Estonian-Italian cooperation feature film Sinine Lada. The third supported project, which received EUR 20 000, is the Italina-Lithuanian documentary film Jonas.

The Italian and Baltic co-production development award was established in November 2018 as a cooperation project between the Baltic Film Centres and the Italian Ministry of Culture's Film Directorate. The aim of the award is to intensify cooperation between Italy and the Baltic States by encouraging the representatives of the film industry of these countries to create joint projects for screening in cinemas. This award finances the development of feature-length feature films, feature animation and feature-length documentaries co-produced by Italy and the Baltic States (planned film length of at least 52 minutes).

In order for a co-production to be eligible for aid, at least one producer must be established in Italy and at least one producer in one of the Baltic States.

The budget of the support fund in the competition is EUR 40 000, of which EUR 20 000 is allocated by the Directorate of Cinema (Direzione Generale Cinema) of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Cultural Activities and Tourism (Ministero per i beni e la attività culturali or MiBAC), and EUR 20 000 is allocated jointly by the Lithuanian Film Centre, the Latvian National Film Centre and the Estonian Film Institute.

In January 2019, two projects – one Lithuanian, Latvian, Italian and French co-production and one Lithuanian-Italian cooperation project – received the first Italian-Baltic co-production award. So far, the awards have been awarded six times, among the awarded applicants so far there have been a total of six projects related to Latvia.