18/11/2005

The 281 seater single-screen cinema in Tallin, Kino Sõprus has been awarded by the MEDIA Programme’s Europa Cinemas, the Best Young Audience Activities Award which will be given tonight by Jeanne Moreau and Claude Miller as part of the 10th annual conference of the European cinema network (Budapest, 17-20 November).
Run by Katrin Rajasaare, the cinema has indeed a whole host of activities organised for young and older children all through the year, including ‘Friendship with the cinema’, midnight screenings during spring and autumn for students, and the Spleepwalkers Student Film Festival. A strong promotion campaign is always put together by Rajasaare –sometimes in cooperation with other partners- with press information, posters and flyers…lots of flyers because «children love to collect them», she says. Estonian and Scandinavian films are part of the programme, and Tallin children are kept informed about what’s screening at the Sõprus through kindergardens, schools, bookshops and the internet.
«The Europa Cinemas Award given to us recognises our work, and it will certainly help contribute to the distribution of European films in the Baltic countries», stressed Rajasaare.

Films currently playing at the Sõprus include the German award-winning film Sophie Scholl, The Final Days [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Marc Rothemund, and the popular Finnish family film Pelicanman by Liisa Helminen. A special week of French documentaries is also currently playing with the ‘Festival of Festivals’ collection including some of the best award-winning French documentaries of the year.