07/02/2006

As expected, Aku Louhimies’s Frozen Land, last year’s number one title at the Finnish box office, was the clear winner at Finland’s top annual Jussi Awards, held last Sunday night in Helsinki. The film scooped up eight awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Script (Paavo Westerberg), Best Supporting Actor (Sulevi Peltola) and Best Supporting Actress (Matleena Kuusniemi).

The fast-paced realistic depiction of contemporary Finland, with an episodic structure, was produced by successful Finnish producer Markus Selin for Solar Films and is being sold internationally by Birch Tree Entertainment.

The second biggest Jussi winner from 2005 was Klaus Härö’s WW2 drama Mother Of Mine, which received three awards: Best Actress (another trophy for Swedish actress Maria Lundqvist, recently crowned at the Swedish Guldbagge Awards), Best Cinematography (Jarkko T. Laine) and Best Set Design (Cian Bornebusch).

Hannu-Pekka Björkman, who played the difficult role of a father mourning the loss of his youngest son in Kari Paljakka’s drama For the Living and the Dead, received the well-deserved Jussi for Best Leading Actor.

Dome Karukoski’s Beauty and the Bastard, the second most nominated film (with eight nominations), won only one Jussi for Best Music (Jukka Immonen), while the Best Documentary Film Award went to John Webster’s What Comes Around - See Everything, an intimate portrait of a police officer in her everyday life.