To tie in with a horror exhibition at the EMP Museum in Seattle, horror maestro Roger Corman gave some background into the success of "Dinocroc" and the ludicrous "Sharktapus". Bad news for all of us scriptwriters that sweat over spec scripts for five years: all these films came from brainstorming sessions around titles! The rest was filled in by the team.

I've sat in on these sort of projects and nearly got a horror story set in Pyrenees going because of one. Before you rush around saying, "I could do that", remember that in these cases it's not what is being said that makes the difference, it's who is saying it and to whom!

PS: if anyone is interested in a low-budget slash movie set in the Pyrenees or Europe's first car tuning movie, you know who to contact.

At its 24th awards ceremony in Berlin, the European Film Academy handed out its awards for 2011. As is often the case, their choice of films is strictly - almost fanatically - art-house, with Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" picking up Best Film and "Le gamin au vélo/The Kid With the Bike" the rather unusual choice for the screenplay award. Mads Mikkelsen, Stephen Frears and Michel Piccoli were also given awards.
Von Trier skipped the event, sending his wife to pick up the award instead. The academy has 2,500 members.

• EUROPEAN FILM 2011:MELANCHOLIA, Denmark/Sweden/France/GermanyWRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Lars von TrierPRODUCED BY: Meta Louise Foldager & Louise Vesth 
• EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2011:Susanne Bier for HÆVNEN (In a Better World) 
• EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2011:Tilda Swinton in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN 
• EUROPEAN ACTOR 2011:Colin Firth in THE KING’S SPEECH 
• EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2011:Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for LE GAMIN AU VELO (The Kid with a Bike) 
• CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2011:Manuel Alberto Claro for MELANCHOLIA 
• EUROPEAN EDITOR 2011:Tariq Anwar for THE KING’S SPEECHEUROPEAN 
• PRODUCTION DESIGNER 2011:Jette Lehmann for MELANCHOLIAEUROPEAN COMPOSER 2011:Ludovic Bource for THE ARTIST 
• EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2011:ADEM (Oxygen) by Hans Van Nuffel, Belgium/theNetherlands 
• EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY 2011 - Prix ARTE:PINA by Wim Wenders, GermanyEUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY ANIMATED FEATURE FILM 2011:CHICO & RITA by Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal & Fernando Trueba 
• EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM 2011:THE WHOLLY FAMILY by Terry Gilliam, ItalyEUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION AWARD 2011 - Prix EURIMAGES:Mariela Besuievsky, Spain 
• EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA 2011:Mads Mikkelsen, Denmark 
• EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:Stephen Frears, UK 
• EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SPECIAL HONORARY AWARD:Michel Piccoli, France 
• THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD 2011:THE KING’S SPEECH by Tom Hooper, UK

More info: European Film Awards

Who would you have voted for as Best European Screenplay  in 2011?

The 60th Melbourne International Film Festivals (21 July – 7 August 2011) will showcase a large number of German productions and co-productions this year.


International Panorama

DREI (THREE) by Tom Tykwer, X Filme Creative Pool
THE FUTURE by Miranda July, Razor Filmproduktion (DE/US)
IM ALTER VON ELLEN (AT ELLEN’S AGE) by Pia Marais, Pandora Filmproduktion
INNOCENT SATURDAY by Alexander Mindadze, Bavaria Pictures (RU/DE/UA)
JEAN GENTIL by Laura Guzmán, Bärbel Mauch Film (MX/DE)
LE HAVRE by Aki Kaurismäki, Pandora Filmproduktion (FR/DE/FI)
MELANCHOLIA by Lars von Trier, Zentropa International (DK/SE/FR/DE)


Prime Time

DREILEBEN – EINE MINUTE DUNKEL (DREILEBEN – ONE MINUTE OF DARKNESS) by Christoph Hochhäusler, Heimatfilm
DREILEBEN – ETWAS BESSERES ALS DEN TOD (DREILEBEN – BEATS BEING DEAD) by Christian Petzold, Schramm Film Koerner & Weber
DREILEBEN – KOMM MIR NICHT NACH (DREILEBEN – DON’T FOLLOW ME AROUND) by Dominik Graf, BurkertBareiss


Accent on Asia

BI, DON’T BE AFRAID by Phan Dang Di, TR9 Film (VN/FR/DE)


Documentaries

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS by Werner Herzog, Werner Herzog Filmproduktion (US/FR/DE)
EL BULLI: COOKING IN PROGRESS by Gereon Wetzel, if productions
KHODORKOVSKY by Cyril Tuschi, Lala Films


TeleScope

SCHLAFKRANKHEIT (SLEEPING SICKNESS) by Ulrich Köhler, Komplizen Film (DE/FR/NL)


Backbeat

MICHEL PETRUCCIANI by Michael Radford, Looks Film (FR/DE/IT)


Next Gen

WINTERTOCHTER by Johannes Schmid, schlichtundergreifend (DE/PL)


Documentary Shorts

LEONIDS STORY by Rainer Ludwigs (DE/UA)


Our Space

RUHR by James Benning


See Your Music

CYMASONICS – MATRIX OPTIMIZER 1.0.1


The Light Kinetic

LIQUID/LIGHT/FLOW

TEMPUS.RUHR



Networked

MEDIANERAS by Gustavo Taretto, Pandora Filmproduktion (AR/DE/ES)


The Natural World

DARWIN AND HIS FABULOUS ORCHIDS by Ralph Heinsohn, Tilt


MIFF 60th Retrospective

CLASS RELATIONS by Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet

The 9th Brussels Film Festival wrapped up last night in Brussels. The festival focuses on European cinema, paying particular attention to first and second films.

The best screenplay award offered by the ASA (Francophone Association of Belgian Screenwriters and the SABAM) went to "Happy, Happy (Sykt lykkelig)" (photo) a black comedy directed by Anne Sewitsky (Norway) and written by Raghnild Tronvoll.

Other winners include

• "Innocent Saturday (V Subbotu)" directed by Alexander Mindadze - Golden Iris for Best Film and Jameson Cinephile Award
  
• "Nothing's All Bad (Smukke Menesker)" by Mikkel Munch-Fals - White Irish for first feature
  
• "A Quiet Life (Una vita tranquilla)" by Claudio Cupellini - Cineuropa Award
• "Parked" by Darragh Byrne - Audience Award
• "Ni à vendre ni à louer" by Pascal Rabaté - RTBF and Be TV awards
• "Injury Time" by Robin Print - Bet Short Film Award
• "De Bijzondere Leven van Rocky De Vlaeminck" by Kevin Meul.

The short film selection can be viewed on UniversCine.

German Films will be presenting the 32nd edition of KINO!2011: New Cinema from Germany from 27 April-2 May 2011 as part of the annual film season curated by program founder Laurence Kardish (Senior Curator, Department of Film) at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

A total of seven new films and TV productions will be shown in the presence of numerous German artists. KINO!2011 will open with THREE (DREI) by Tom Tykwer, who will personally introduce his film which has been nominated for six German Film Awards. The US distributor, Strand Releasing, will release the film in US cinemas later in the year.

Also showing in the program: the Regina Ziegler-produced TV mini-series THE WEISSENSEE SAGA: A BERLIN LOVE STORY (WEISSENSEE) by Friedemann Fromm. The prize-winning screenwriter Annette Hess and other crew members will travel to New York for the presentation along with the director and producer. In addition, there will be screenings of the two documentaries HOW TO MAKE A BOOK WITH STEIDL by Gereon Wetzel in the presence of the director and producer Ingo Fliess, as well as DANCING DREAMS (TANZTRÄUME) by Anne Linsel. Three screenings will be dedicated to Germany’s up-and-coming generation: German Films’ short film program NEXT GENERATION 2010, as well as the German Film Award-nominated film THE DAY I WAS NOT BORN (DAS LIED IN MIR) by Florian Cossen and PICCO by Philip Koch. The Goethe-Institut New York will also be organizing a workshop with Philip Koch and Florian Cossen about their work as filmmakers.

Details at Goethe New York.

It's always fun to see who did or didn't win the best screenwriting awards - and 2011 had some cracking good scripts. But time spent on the Bafta site turned up another gem: BAFTA screenwriters On Screenwriting. Six leading screenwriters (Simon Beaufoy, Aline Brosh McKenna, Christopher Hampton CBE, Sir David Hare, Ronald Harwood CBE and Peter Morgan) with credits including "Atonement", "The Devil wears Prada", "Frost/Nixon" and "Slumdog Millionaire" give their opinion on the craft, the films they have written and their career so far.

Visit it here.

I can't knock the awards for "The King's Speech" (original) and "Social Network" (adapted). Try and find both and read them. An education in itself.

"The themes of [The Social Network] are as old as storytelling itself: loyalty, friendship, power, money, envy, social status, jealousy. It’s a story that if Aeschylus were alive today, he’d have written; Shakespeare would have written; Paddy Chayefsky would have written. Fortunately for me, none of those people were available, so I got to write it."

Aaron Sorkin is the award-winning scriptwriter of "A Few Good Men" and "The West Wing". He'll be at a special screening of "The Social Network" in London on January 20. The Script Factory says a few seats might be available on the night. If you're in London, break legs to get one at The Script Factory.

Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer," a story of a journalist hired to ghostwrite the memoirs of a British prime minister, was designated best film at the European Film Award in Tallinn, Estonia. Polanski, who was awarded the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival, also took five other prizes at the ceremony, including best screenwriter.

In other awards, Swiss actor Bruno Ganz was given a lifetime achievement award and Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael left with the audienc award for "Mr Nobody".

Full list of winners:

EUROPEAN FILM 2010
THE GHOST WRITER, France/Germany/UK
directed by Roman Polanski
written by Robert Harris & Roman Polanski
produced by Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde & Roman Polanski

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2010
Roman Polanski for THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2010
Sylvie Testud in LOURDES

EUROPEAN ACTOR 2010
Ewan McGregorin THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2010
Robert Harris & Roman Polanski for THE GHOST WRITER

CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2010
Giora Bejach for LEBANON

EUROPEAN EDITOR 2010
Luc Barnier & Marion Monnier for CARLOS

EUROPEAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER 2010
Albrecht Konrad for THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2010
Alexandre Desplat for THE GHOST WRITER

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2010- Prix FIPRESCI
LEBANON, Israel/Germany/France
written & directed by Samuel Maoz
produced by Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, David Silber, Uri Sabag, Einat Bickel, Benjamina Mirnik & Illan Girard

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY - Prix ARTE 2010
NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ (Nostalgia for the Light), France/Germany/Chile
Directed by Patricio Guzmán

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY ANIMATED FEATURE FILM 2010
THE ILLUSIONIST by Sylvain Chomet

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM 2010
HANOI - WARSZAWA (Hanoi – Warsaw), Poland
by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz

EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION AWARD – Prix EURIMAGES 2010
Zeynep Özbatur Atakan, producer

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Bruno Ganz, actor

EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA 2010
Gabriel Yared, composer

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD for Best European Film 2010
MR. NOBODYwritten and directed by Jaco van Dormael
produced by Philippe Godeau