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The second time was twice as nice - it's raining prizes at the conclusion of the Berlinale Talent Campus

"This is one of the most important initiatives for the future of the Berlinale" - commented Director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, Cold Mountain) about the second Berlinale Talent Campus. Yesterday the Campus concluded with a large Farewell Party at which two prizes were awarded: The Argentinian Martin Romanella won the Talent Movie of the Week with his film Funeral Etiquette. The winner of the Volkswagen Score Competition was film composer Tom Third from Canada.

"It's not just a matter of what we learnt here, but rather the incredible energy that I will carry back home with me for my own projects", says Anca Miruna Lazarescu, a Romanian film-maker at HFF Munich. For six days some 80 experts - including Eleanor Bergstein, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Frances McDormand, Ken Adam, Michael Ballhaus, John Boorman, Daniel Brühl, John Cale, Stephen Frears, David Holmes, Mike Leigh, Andrew Lesnie, Walter Murch, Alan Parker, Nicolas Philibert, Zbigniew Preisner, Jack Valenti, Wim Wenders and Slavoj Zizek - explained the fine points of Filmbiz to 520 up-and-coming film talents from 84 countries. As Christine Dorn, manager of Campus, said about the extraordinary response: "We're very delighted that all these distinguished film industry experts turned up and took part for free."

Funeral Etiquette by Martin Romanella is Talent Movie of the Week

All four films which were to be made during Campus won the race against time: Of these, the 520 Campus participants voted for Funeral Etiquette by Martin Romanella of Argentinia. The winning film: a dead man, two rivals for the widow's favour. The bald-headed undertaker ruins the work of his rival, the dead man's hairdresser. Each man has worked out a plan for seducing the widow ... Incidentally, the winning director won a hairbrush.

Of the 257 young director-talents who submitted proposals for a short film, four were selected and given the opportunity to carry out their proposal during Campus. The Foreign Office, FFA Filmförderungsanstalt, Apple, Avid, CANON and SONY supported this Berlinale Talent Campus project. zero film, Berlin, was responsible for the production.

Tom Third - winner of the Volkswagen Score Competition

Three film excerpts had to be set to music: the winner of the Volkswagen Score Competition for young sound designers and composers at the Berlinale Talent Campus was the Canadian Tom Third. He will participate in the four-day symposium School of Sound in London, including his travelling and hotel costs. Christiane Krebs-Hartmann of Volkswagen presented the winner with his diploma. The Jury: Walter Murch, David Holmes, Martin Steyer.