Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic has been named the winner of the 2014 European Union Prix Media for drama “What Are You Looking At?” The prize goes to a writer and producer for a film project with the best box office potential submitted for development funding from Creative Europe’s Media program.
Tanovic will be presented the prize May 17 at the Cannes Film Festival by Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner of education and culture. Tanovic shares the award with co-scriptwriter Predrag Kojovic and producer Amra Baksic Camo. The story of “What Are You Looking At?” is set in a post-war city “without heroes and with its values hijacked by corruption and crime,” said Tanovic in a statement.
The director won the 2001 foreign language Oscar for “No Man’s Land,” which also played in Cannes competition and won a screenplay prize. In 2013, he won a Silver Bear in Berlin for “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker.”
“In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country of few but nonetheless good films, it is almost impossible to produce a film without access to various European initiatives and funds. Creative Europe and its Media program are essential for our film industry. It took a lot of lobbying with the authorities for our country to join Media. The support we have received as well as this award proves our reasoning was right,” Tanovic said in a statement.