Rotterdam & Goteborg winners; Thruline Signs Writer Celeste Parr

Rotterdam Winners
This year’s virtual International Film Festival Rotterdam has crowned the winners from its film program. Southern India-set Pebbles by Vinothraj P.S won the Tiger Award, while I Comete – A Corsican Summer by French filmmaker Pascal Tagnati and Looking for Venera by Norika Sefa from Kosovo both won Special Jury Awards. The VPRO Big Screen Award went to El perro que no calla by Ana Katz from Argentina and Quo Vadis, Aida? by Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić won the BankGiro Loterij Audience Award. The festival named its industry winners last week. “In these most challenging of times, we are incredibly proud to have brought an outstanding selection of titles in our reimagined festival format,” said festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.

Goteborg Fest Awards
Tigers, directed by Ronnie Sandahl, won the 2021 Dragon Award Best Nordic Film as this year’s Goteborg Film Festival came to a close over the weekend. The Dragon Award Best Acting went to Erik Enge for his performance in the same film, while the film critic’s award, FIPRESCI, went to Pleasure by Ninja Thyberg. Linda Wassberg won the Sven Nykvist Cinematography Award for Tove. The Audience Dragon Award Best Nordic Film went to Another Round by Thomas Vinterberg. Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee won the Dragon Award Best Nordic Documentary. The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award went to Li Dongmei for Mama. The Dragon Award Best International Film went to Jasmila Zbanic’s Quo Vadis, Aida?. Finally, Ruben Östlund scooped the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award this year.

Thruline Signs Writer Celeste Parr
EXCLUSIVE: Canadian screenwriter Celeste Parr has signed with Thruline Entertainment. She will be repped by partner Marc Hamou and literary manager Danny Sherman. Parr is currently writing Ethel’s Orchestra, a new feature film directed by Aisling Walsh and produced by Marie-Claude Poulin and Martina Niland. Her prior credits include writing and co-producing for CityTV’s Hudson & Rex, as well as writing for season two of CBC’s This Life, for which she was nominated for a WGC Screenwriting Award. Parr’s first feature film, Gurov & Anna, earned her a screenwriting nomination for Quebec’s Prix Iris in 2016. She is an alumna of the 2015 TIFF Talent Lab, the 2019 TIFF Writers Studio, and the 2020 Netflix-Banff Diversity of Voices Program.

‘Unsinkable’ Finalizes Cast
EXCLUSIVE: Nathalie Emmanuel has joined Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Brian Cox and John Malkovich in Unsinkable, an original ‘audio series’ told in 11 20-minute episodes. It follows the story of a WW2 cargo tanker that, after being damaged by gunfire, sees the crew re-board to try and save the burning ship. Misha Crosby and John Mawson, writer are the executive producers and directors of the series, with co-producers B7 Media and Jack Bowman, AudioMarvels running the UK side of the production. Composer Stephen Endelman will compose original music.