Zentropa Norway waves good-bye

End of sponsorship / mentor program in script consulting

Deeply impressed by the incredible creativity of the films she saw as a member of the jury for the international competition of u-a-c 2009, Valerie Saunders (former representative of Norway in the film production company ZENTROPA) announced the following at the awards ceremony: "ZENTROPA Norway will take charge of a sponsorship / mentor program in script consulting over the next two years for the 3 winners of the International Young Film Makers Award as well as for the film maker who received an ‚honourable mention’. ZENTROPA Norway will act as consultants, offering the film makers advice about the script development of their future film projects."

Nearly 2 years later, Valerie Saunders comments:

Coming towards the end of our sponsorship / mentor program in script consulting I’d like to take the opportunity to address the winners of the International Young Film Makers Award 2009 and those who will come in the future.
It has been a great pleasure for me personally to have had the chance to offer such a sponsorship. The enthusiasm with which these young film makes exhibit is inspiring. In fact, it has given me some valuable insight into what stories are evolving across the globe. And here is an encouraging word to anyone who is listening - I sincerely hope another company picks up the baton and makes a similar offer in 2011. The effort made is rewarded tenfold.
Getting the story one wants to tell straight is a fundamental building block in the process of film production. The fundament which the rest will be built on. Like a building a house, the film will run into difficulties standing the test of time if the foundation is not stable. Building the fundament is also a painstaking process, but nonetheless a process worth spending ample amount of time on, as the process further down the line of putting up the walls, adding the roof, windows, doors, water and electrical installations, decorating and moving in demands bringing together many others who each have their own craft and will. The storyteller wants all of the crew to envision the same house to be built, his/her house. Inevitably ending in a housewarming or an open house, much like opening the doors to the cinema screening of a film, everyone will know if the house has been built correctly or if they are standing in a house on shaky ground. Well, all of the participants of 2009 are well on their way to building magnificent houses (great films) and I for one, am looking forward to the housewarming. See you in the cinema!
Yours truly,
Valerie Edwina Saunders