13/12/2005

During the closing night ceremony of the 9th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival last Saturday, Danish filmmaker Per Fly’s Manslaughter [+see also:
trailer
film profile] produced by Zentropa Entertainments won another two awards to its already long list of international festival trophees. The third part of Fly’s societal trilogy won the Jury Prize for Best Actor (Jesper Christensen) in Tallinn, as well as the Don Quijotte Award from the Jury of the FICC (International Federation of Film-Clubs) who said that "the film gives us a dramatic and well-told story that in a convincing way deals with questions of personal choices and their irreversible consequences".

Christi Puiu’s Romanian film The Death of Mr Lazarescu [+see also:
trailer
film profile] also won two prizes in Tallinn, the Special Jury Prize and a Special Mention from the FICC. The Finnish entry for this year’s Oscars nominations Mother of Mine by Klaus Härö won the Jury Prize for Best Actress (Maria Lundqvist), the Afghan/French co-production Earth And Ashes by Atiq Rahimi was given the Best Asian Film Award by the NETPAC Jury (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) and Hardi Volmer’s Estonian documentary Pärnography dedicated to the master of Estonian animation Priit Pärn won the Estonian Film Award.

The awards ceremony of the Black Nights Film Festival was followed by the premiere of Peeter Simm’s Estonian/German co-production Fed Up (see Cineuropa’s making of), a light-hearted road movie starring Heio van Stetten and Thomas Schmausen which will open in Estonia next February.