Romanian title wins Best Film at Vilnius International Film Festival
- The Japanese Dog has nabbed the top prize at the Baltic festival
The winners of the Vilnius International Film Festival (VIFF) were announced last week, with a quirky Romanian film directed by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu making off with the top award. The Japanese Dog [+see also:
trailer
film profile] sees leading Romanian actor Victor Rebengiuc play a lonely man who is visited by his son, who has spent much of his life living in Japan. Unbeknownst to him, his son will also be accompanied by his Japanese wife and child. Soon, the separation spanning all those years will begin to take its toll.
Other awards handed out in the “New Europe – New Names” competition programme were Best Director for Levan Koguashvili for Blind Dates (Georgia), Best Actor for Igor Samobor for the Slovenian film Class Enemy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rok Biček
interview: Rok Bicek
interview: Rok Bicek
film profile] and Best Actress for Michaela Bendulova for Miracle [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Slovakia/Czech Republic). The CICAE (International Confederation of Art Cinemas) Award went to Rok Bicek, director of Class Enemy.
The jury consisted of Ludmila Cvikova (Slovakia/Netherlands, head of international programming at the Doha Film Institute), Kaori Momoi (Japan, actress/director), Verena von Stackelberg (Germany, cinema programmer for the Berlinale/journalist), Laila Pakalnina (Latvia, director) and Dimitris Kerkinos (Greece, programmer of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival).
The VIFF also instigated a new competition, entitled “Baltic Gaze”, which focused on some of the best films from around the Baltic Sea region. Best Film went to The Hope Factory, a debut feature about life in a bleak provincial industrial city in Siberia, by Russian director Natalia Meshaninova; Best Director was awarded to Poland's Pawel Pawlikowski for Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile]; Best Actor was Lauri Lagle for Estonian film Free Range [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]; and Best Actress was Alexandra Finder for The Police Officer’s Wife [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philip Gröning
film profile] (Germany).
The Baltic Gaze jury comprised Christoph Terhechte (Germany, head of the Forum programme at the Berlinale), Lenka Tyrpáková (Czech Republic, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival programmer), Igor Soukmanov (Belarus, Minsk International Film Festival programme director/film critic), Mihai Chirilov (Romania, Transilvania International Film Festival artistic director) and Roberto Cueto (Spain, San Sebastian International Film Festival programmer).
The Best Short Film was Pandas by Slovak director Matus Vizar, and Audience Awards went to Palestinian film Omar, directed by Hany Abu-Assad, and short film Kush by India's Shubhashish Bhutiani.
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