A Winner is Seen at the Start conquers the Jury's heart and wins the 5th EWA Network Female talent Award in Trieste
Despite we are still living in the pandemic scene which prevents us from seeing teasers, films and feel the passion for the projects that only filmmakers are able to convey, EWA NETWORK has had the privilege to get to know as much interesting projects as ever, and we are delighted to announce a new winner for the EWA Network Female Talent Award, which has been granted since 2017 to the best female -directed project at When East Meets West co-production forum.
In 2021, the jury composed by Tamara Tatishvili (EWA Network) and Pierre-Alexis Chevit (Head of Cannes Docs) agreed to present the EWA Network award to Kazakh director, Zhannat Alshanova.
Congratulations to Zhannat Alshanova for her promising project.
The Director
Zhannat is an award-winning writer/director and producer from Kazakhstan. She studied MA in Filmmaking at the London Film School. Her graduation short film End of Season (2018) premiered at Cannes Film Festival (Cinefondation), won Most Promising Director Award in Tel-Aviv and Best Cinematography Award in Munich.
In 2019 Zhannat got selected for Bela Tarr's directing residency, where she developed and shot a film Paola Makes A Wish (2019), produced by Locarno Film Festival, CISA and Ticino Film Commission. The film got screened at various international film festivals, including Locarno Film Festival, PÖFF Shorts and Sundance Film Festival.
Her latest short film History of Civilization (2020) premiered at Locarno Film Festival in Pardo di Domani section and won silver prize - PARDINO D'ARGENTO. The film is also selected for TIFF, Hamptons IFF, Clermont-Ferrand, Cairo IFF and many others.
Zhannat is currently developing two feature projects: Mother Tongue (ARTE France’s ArteKino International Award at Asian Project Market) and A Winner is Seen at the Start (WEME co-production forum).
Recently, she has served as a juror for Sundance Collab Challenge "Time Capsule". She is Berlinale Talents and Sundance Institute alumna.
SYNOPSIS and INFO
Special Mention and free EWA Network membership
The jury gives recognition to a filmmaker who touched them with her sensitive, passionate and bold personality, and with her atypical filmic adventure. Therefore, it will be granted a free 2021 EWA Network membership to Alessandra Celesia, director of the documentary project produced by Films de Force Majeure THE MECHANICS OF THINGS.
Synopsis: After falling from the 8th floor, my cat Tito has been left paralyzed. Looking for a solution, I typed “spinal cord regeneration” on the Internet and found myself embarked on a clinical test on human patients in China… as a director to make a film, as a woman to save my cat. Together with my fellow travellers, we will confront our own wounds, all apparently unfixable. Yet, we will try to fix them all the same.