09/12/2009

Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani’s Ajami [+see also:
trailer
film profile] won the Best Eurasia Film award and its €10,000 cash prize from the City of Tallinn last Friday at the closing ceremony of the 13th Black Nights Film Festival.

Finnish director Klaus Härö was voted Best Director for Letters to Father Jacob [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Finland’s Oscar entry this year in the best foreign language film category. The Swedish/Norwegian actress Maria Bonnevie was named Best Actress for her role as a drug addict in the Norwegian drama The Angel by Margreth Olin, and Swede David Dencik won Best Actor for his performance in Nicolo Donato’s Brotherhood [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview Nicolo Donato [IT]
interview: Nicolo Donato
film profile].

The Special Jury Prize went to the Romanian-Moldavian film Wedding in Bessarabia and the Special Prize for Cinematographic Masterpiece went to director Bahman Ghobadi and cameraman Turaj Aslan for No One Knows About Persian Cats. The film also won accolades from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) and the International Federation of Film Societies (FICC).

In the Tridens Baltic feature film competition, Gytis Lukšasi’s Vortex, Lithuania’s candidate for an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, was voted Best Film and Viktoras Radzevicius Best Cinematographer for the film. The Scottish Leader Estonian Feature Film award went to Asko Kase for December Heat with special mentions for Andrus Tuisk’s Bank Robbery and Jaak Kilmi’s documentary Disco and Atomic War. The latter, a look at the influence of Western pop culture on Soviet youth during the Cold War, also walked away with the FIPRESCI award. Lastly, the Audience Award went to the South Korean comedy Castaway on the Moon.