BABYLON is an audiovisual development programme assisting filmmakers of migrant and diasporic origin to break through into the international mainstream.

Frequently unrecognized, the stories that emerge from these undiscovered talents of "double culture" provide the richest untapped source of storytelling across the world.

BABYLON provides a space in which diasporic filmmakers can speak to each other and to the widest international audience, providing access and inclusion.

New in 2010

2010 has seen the exciting expansion of the BABYLON programme into two complementary strands, BABYLON EUROPE and BABYLON INTERNATIONAL.

Babylon 2010 includes

• International Feature Film Development Programme for professional writers/directors and producers linking Europe with West Africa, with workshops at the Berlinale and Jos/Abuja, Nigeria.
  
• European Project Development Programme for professional writers/directors and producers focusing on filmmakers/stories of migrant and diasporic origin, with workshops during Rotterdam IFF and Cannes Market.
  
• Regional European Programme of screenwriting and production workshops (Utrecht, Berlin, Vienna, Paris)
  
• Events and screenings throughout the year
  
• Membership of a growing pan-European network of like-minded filmmakers
  

BABYLON EUROPE has continued the programme established over the previous 3 years, focusing on the training and development of European filmmakers of migrant and diasporic origin,promoting cultural diversity through project-based workshops aimed at filmmakers of Europe’s diasporic communities and others working on cross-cultural projects.

BABYLON EUROPE welcomed 15 projects to its development workshop in Rotterdam, of which 11 graduated to its industrial and marketing workshop in Cannes.

BABYLON EUROPE is run by Scenario Films and funded by national partners Mira Media (The Netherlands), Filmfonds Wien, Okto (Austria) Skillset/UK Film Council, Screen East, British Council (UK), Goethe-Institut (Germany).

BABYLON INTERNATIONAL is a new venture intended to forge industrial and creative links between Europe with other continents. In its pilot year BABYLON INTERNATIONAL brought together 13 European and West African filmmakers in an intercontinental script development workshop held in Berlin, followed three months later by a production workshop in Abuja where 9 trailers were shot and edited in a 45-minute assembly in time for the Zuma Film Festival and a special showcase in Cannes.

BABYLON INTERNATIONAL is run by a three-sided partnership of independent producers Script House (Berlin), Scenario Films (London) and Play Film (Paris), whose director Nathalie Valentin becomes the first BABYLON alumnus to co-produce the programme. The funding partners are the European Union’s MEDIA International, the Nigerian Film Corporation and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

Scenario Films, London/Ciné-Sud Promotion, Paris/Mira Media, Holland/ScriptHouse, Germany / Play Film, Paris.