Your Ciné Idea Competition

The Your Ciné idea competition, held for the third time, invites emerging film makers to refine their script ideas together with experienced mentors. The competition consists of a workshop held in May, and a pitch competition held on 23 August. The August pitch competition and the preceding panel discussion are open to audiences. The applications for the pitching competition closed on 19 April.

PITCHING EVENT | 23 Aug – Free entry!

Venue: Kupla | Kauppamiehentie 7, 02100 Espoo

1:00–2:30 PM Panel discussion (in English) about the diversity in audiovisual productions – in collaboration with Sunklo, Selo and Voima

2:45–4:00 PM Pitching competition (in Finnish)

4:00–5:00 PM Break & The Jury's Deliberation

5:00–5:15 PM Announcement of the Winner and Rationale

PANEL DISCUSSION

The panel discussion will explore diversity: How do we experience and perceive the concept of diversity? What phenomena, stories, and character portrayals have been presented from the perspective of diversity today? How and why should the field be enriched with the contributions of creators from different backgrounds? What kinds of stories and creators should be highlighted?

The discussion will feature filmmaker and actor Kaisa El Ramly; actor, dancer, and performance artist Geoffrey Erista; director-producer Mazdak Nassir, and Voima magazine journalist Iida Simes. The discussion will be moderated by filmmaker Zagros Manuchar. The discussion is organized in collaboration with Sunklo ry, Selo ry, and Voima magazine. The discussion is in English.

YOUR CINÉ?

The idea competition Your Ciné is an initiative by Espoo Ciné towards a more diverse cinema, hence targeted at underrepresented minorities; those whose voices are not yet sufficiently visible on the screens due to norms and structures. The competition is open to students as well as emerging film makers whose works have not been previously published. In 2024, the competition is aimed at BIPOC filmmakers.

An expert panel assembled by the Writers Guild of Finland (Sunklo) will select approximately ten finalists from the submitted ideas, whose writers will be invited to participate in the competition workshop. The workshop will take place on May 30-31, 2024, in the Helsinki metropolitan area. During the workshop days, the finalists will meet the competition mentors, receive training in storytelling, and develop their idea with one selected mentor. With the assistance of mentors, competitors will craft short pitches from their ideas, which will be presented to all mentors on the second workshop day. The application for the competition closed on April 19, 2024.

The competition culminates in a pitching contest on the opening day of Espoo Ciné on Friday, August 23, 2024, and the final winner will be chosen by a jury of professionals. The selection criteria include the originality of the idea, production feasibility, dramaturgical structure, and emotional impact. The winner will be awarded a prize of €2,500 at the opening screening of Espoo Ciné.

In previous years, the winners of the Your Ciné competition were Maaret Louhelainen and Pinja Eskola. You can read about Louhelainen's thoughts on the competition here and Eskola's here.

The winner of Your Ciné 2024 is Yasmin Najjar with her idea TJ 86. Two honorary mentions were also given toHasina Fahim and Bella Meer with the idea Mamuhäät as well as Mukhtar Abdi and Zakariya Noor with the idea Karpe Diem. More information here.

For more information, please contact Emma Vuorinen, Head of Production: emma@espoocine.fi