The Mediterranean Film Institute (MFI)
is a specialised training organisation. Established in 1998,
it has become a center for activities that bring together emerging
screenwriters and directors from Europe and the Mediterranean
region, teachers of cinema and accomplished professionals from
the film industry. MFI is developing this initiative into a
permanent center of continuous training for emerging European
film talent, doing so in the land - and in an environment -
that originally gave birth to Drama. Furthermore, it strives
to create a meeting forum for European film professionals, which
would be able to facilitate a creative interchange for re-addressing
and re-discovering dramatic narrative technique, and for further
elaborating on issues of contemporary cinematic narrative and
dramaturgy.
In the six years of its operation, MFI has become an accomplished
European organization in the field of training, under the
umbrella of the MEDIA Programme of the European Union. MFI’s
main training activity, MFI Script
Workshops is one of the most dynamic and successful
screenwriting programs in Europe. More than 150 filmmakers
have participated in the program, a great deal of the participating
projects having been realized. Most of the produced works
have won significant awards and distinctions in international
festivals as well as they have been successfully distributed
in theaters and television. MFI “alumni” includes
2003 Academy Award winner for Best
Foreign Film “Nowhere in Africa” by the
German writer/director Caroline Link.
MFI’s other training activities, including script workshop
programs for feature and short films in Greece and Cyprus,
have introduced an advanced, consistent screenwriting methodology
to the Greek speaking world, resulting to many awarded and
commercially appealing films. MFI’s continuing efforts
aim at transforming the environment for development and production
of Greek and Cypriot films, the ultimate goals being artistic
accomplishment and international appeal.
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