Top State Quality Award for 3 Rooms of Melancholia

by Annika Pham

25/08/2005 - The Finnish producer Kristiina Pervilä (Millennium Film Oy) was just awarded by the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Director General Riitta Kaivosoja the highest Quality Award (65,000€) for the film The Three Rooms of Melancholia.

Pirjo Honkasalo’s film described as "an accomplished documentary film that will be a model for many other films around the world for a long time" was amongst 14 films and visual programmes that received a total amount of 360,000€ as part of this year’s State Quality Awards. These awards are given out by the National Council for Cinema to the producer as an acknowledgement of the quality of a film or visual programme released in Finland between June 1, 2004 and May 31, 2005.

Other recipients of the awards include Frozen Land produced by Solar Films (60,000€) and described as a "tough, frantic depiction of our society reaching daringly for new cinematic expression", For The Living And The Dead produced by Sputnik Oy (50,000€), Producing Adults produced by Blind Spot Pictures (30,000€) described as "a serious basic theme and a humourous treatment that add up to a fine whole", Pelicanman produced by Lumifilm Oy (30,000€) and described as "a good example of a film that will not become outdated for a long time", and Trench Road produced by Kinotar Oy (20,000€), "the battle of a Finnish man for his home and family told in a quirky but definitely pertinent way".