EDN Award 2013
Friday night two old boys in the documentary community, Italian Stefano Tealdi and Catalan Joan Gonzàlez got the EDN Award 2013. I allow myself this characterisation of dear friends, who were there, when EDN (European Documentary Network) started and who are still making strong efforts to make documentaries be produced and seen, as well as young talent to be developed. Organisers, tutors, inspirators, producers they are.
Ove Rishøj Jensen from EDN stated it like this: The EDN Award 2013 is presented to Stefano Tealdi and Joan Gonzàles for over 15 years of contributing to the outstanding development of the Southern European documentary culture. The contribution has been done by initiating and running Documentary in Europe and DocsBarcelona… Today we often take international networking opportunities for granted. However, it has not always been so. Behind the international documentary structures and European collaborations we see today, are the works of pioneers. People who created the structures we are now working in. They saw opportunities before anyone else knew they were there, and they have created financing opportunities where there were no financing opportunities before. Among these pioneers are Stefano Tealdi and Joan Gonzáles. Therefore we are honouring them with the 2013 EDN Award.
Pioneers, yes, very well deserved recognition indeed. The award was presented at the Thessaloniki Doc Fest. (Photo: Tealdi left, Gonzàlez right).