The Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Annual Bursary 2009 has been awarded to Irish writer/director/producer Juanita Wilson for her short film ‘The Door’. The award of €8,000 will be presented to Juanita at the Sarajevo Film Festival in late August.

The Katrin Cartlidge Bursary is designed to encourage new creative voices in European cinema and to celebrate the independence, singularity and integrity of spirit that Katrin Cartlidge embraced and exemplified in her own lifetime. Wilson’s directorial debut ‘The Door’ follows a father’s desperate attempt to come to terms with the devastating affects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. James Flynn and Louise Curran of Octagon Films produced the film, which also won the IFTA for Best Short earlier this year.

Trustees of the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation include director Mike Leigh, actress Emily Watson and director Danis Tanovic. ‘The Door’ is scheduled to be screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival and at the Munich International Festival, both of which take place in the coming days.