Sir Alan Parker presents Visit Europe Film premiere at World Travel Market

Published on : Thursday, November 7, 2013

At the World Travel Market in London, the film director, Sir Alan Parker, whose films have won nineteen BAFTA awards, ten Golden Globes and ten Oscars, introduced “Roll the Dice”, a new short film promoting Europe as a destination. The film was commissioned by the European Travel Commission (ETC) and produced by Screen South following an international competition entitled EuroShorts
The EuroShorts competition drew entries from 24 countries across Europe and was won by two young filmmakers from Belgrade, Benoit Detalle (28) and Marija Jacimovic (29), who have made an arresting 4-minute film, using stop frame animation, which illustrates a journey across Europe where every travel decision is made by rolling a pair of dice. The team won the commission on the theme: “Europe – A Never Ending Journey”. They received €20,000 and first class InterRail passes to travel through Europe and produce their short film. It can be viewed on the Visit Europe web site at http://euroshorts-films.com/.
The Jury was headed by Sir Alan Parker and included Philippe Reynaert Chair of Cine Regio along with Graham Benson Chair of Screen South and Eduardo Santander CEO of ETC. Sir Alan Parker said: “The team has a real talent for mixing live action and animation in a very entertaining and engaging way. I have to admire how far they have managed to stretch the budget and bring to life the extraordinary diversity that Europe offers.”
Based on an invented dice ‘game’, the film sees the two protagonists’ journey through Europe as they roll the dice at every step of the way to determine where they will go next. The filmmakers say they: “wanted to portray Europe as one big playground ready to be discovered, highlighting the unknown, the feeling of exploration, of fun and discovery”.
Graham Benson Chair of Screen South says: “It has been a real pleasure seeing the fantastic short film ideas that have come through from all over Europe – this is exactly the kind of unique project we should be supporting to encourage European talent. Sir Alan Parker’s participation on the jury is a great endorsement of that.”