10/12/2007

While The Turkish/German co-production Takva: A Man’s Fear of God [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Özer Kiziltan walked away with the EurAsia Grand Prix last Saturday evening during the closing ceremony of the 11th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, local hero Veiko Õunpuu received six awards for his directorial debut Autumn Ball [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The film won Best Actress (Maarja Jakobson) and the Special Jury Prize from the main EurAsia competition programme, Best Film from the Estonian Feature Film Competition, the FICC Jury Award, the Estonian Film Critics Award and the Prize of the Postimees Jury.

Autumn Ball has been on the radar of many international festival programmers and distributors since its world premiere in Venice 2007, where it won the Horizons section.

At home, the film picked up 40,000 admissions, making it “the top arthouse film ever,” according to its producer Katrin Kissa (Homeless Bob Production). Last week, Kissa brought Õunpuu’s latest project, The Temptation of Saint Tony, to the third Baltic Event and Co-production Market and the project left with the €4,000 Best Project Award from the Nordic-Baltic Film Fund.

According to Kissa, Õunpuu will again deal with human nature, to pose the question of whether a person living in our 21st century become a Saint. The €1.1 project supported by the Estonian Film Foundation and the Estonian Cultural Endowment will involve a Swedish co-production partner (Atmo Media Network) as well as a Finnish and/or German co-producer.

Other projects awarded at the Baltic Event include The Kino Caravan by Oana Giurgiu (Romania) and The Last Two Tightrope Dancers in Armenia by Inna Sahakyan (Armenia), winners of the Best Pitch Award from the Producers Network (including free accreditation to their next event in Cannes 2008); and Blackouts by Saara Saarela (Finland), winner of the Best Pitch from EastWest Distribution, with €3,000 towards script doctoring at the Binger Institute.