MEDIA-supported film wins the Palme d'Or

8 June 2006

Ken Loach's powerful Irish Republican drama, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, beat off tough competition to win this year's coveted Palme d'Or at the 59th Cannes International Film Fesival.

MEDIA funding helped bring The Wind that Shakes the Barley to the screen. It was developed with €16,480 from a Slate Funding award to Sixteen Films; a €50,000 contribution towards the cost of bank financing from the i2i scheme; and €246,661 from the Automatic Scheme to help support its distribution. This year European films were more succesful than ever at Cannes with seventeen making the final selection with a total of €3 million from the MEDIA Programme.

Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, welcomed this year's strong showing of MEDIA supported films at Cannes: "This has been Europen money well spent. Not only do we promote cultural diversity, which is at the heart of our European identity, we have also substantially enhanced the competitiveness of the European audiovisual industry. I will do my best to ensure that European Film can continue to count on solid EU support in the future, despite current limitatons in the EU budget."

For more information visit

http://www.festival-cannes.fr/palmares/competition.php?langue=6002&edition=2006