This year’s selection of eleven films was largely driven by stories with a personal or autobiographical connection, as reflected in the award-winning projects. Bulgarian producers/directors Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova of Activist38 won the coco Post Pitch Award of EUR 25,000 in postproduction services from The Post Republic for their project Cat in the Wall. Mileva told FNE that the award was very important to the company, noting that the post-production house has facilities in the UK, where the film about a Bulgarian immigrant mother is set.

The Polish delegation celebrated the MIDPOINT Scholarship Award going to Leave No Traces presented by director Jan P. Matuszyński and producer Leszek Bodzak. The film is set in 1983 in Poland and tells the true story of the beating and death of a young student by the secret police and the massive public demonstrations that followed. The award enables this film project to participate in the Midpoint Feature Launch, a professional script and development programme for emerging film professionals. Bodzak raised a glass to their participation in the 2018 pitch at the Karlovy Vary IFF.

The Ukraine emerged with two prizes: the coco Best Pitch Award 2017 went to The Floor Is Lava by Katerina Gornostai and the new coco WiP (Works in Progress) Award 2017 worth EUR 35.000 in postproduction services sponsored by D-Facto Motion went to the project Voroshilovgrad by Yaroslav Lodygin.