Celebrating ten years of existence, the Riga International Film Festival closed this past weekend with a ceremony held at the festival’s main venue – and a legendary Latvian cinema – Splendid Palace.

The winner of the 2023 RIGA IFF Feature Competition was the Finnish-Swedish comedy Family Time [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tia Kouvo
scheda film] by Tia Kouvo, which garnered the festival’s main award, the Golden Rooster, and a cash prize of €4,000. The jury described the movie as “formally impressively staged and full of love for its characters, each of which has a different motivation; this film shows not only the complexity of relationships, but also how universal our personal problems are”.

Meanwhile, Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints' documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Anna Hints
scheda film], currently a LUX Audience Award nominee, added to its list of plaudits, as it received a Special Mention. “This film is the hottest Kammerspiel ever. In a restricted room, we find a multi-bodied woman that literally sweats out all of her topics, fears and traumatic experiences.”

The jury was made up of Jānis Kalējs (producer, Latvia), Uljana Kim (director-producer, Lithuania), Jenni Zylka (film critic, Germany), Shahrbanoo Sadat (director, Afghanistan) and Ilkka Matila (producer, Finland).

The Riga IFF Showcase was the festival’s industry offering, featuring a pitching session, industry screenings, networking events and the panel discussion “Stories That Cross Borders: Shaping European Series Co-production”. After a record number of submissions, the festival selected 14 feature-film and series projects to be pitched from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Romania and the Czech Republic as well as Tajikistan. The winner of the Riga IFF Showcase was Jan Gebert's Europa, which received a €5,000 cash prize from the festival's main partner, the media and technology company Tet. The Czech project is a fiction feature that sees the protagonist, Tomas, enrol in college with a desire to gain a higher status and break free from the lower rungs of society. He joins a secret club that allows everything that is forbidden and inappropriate according to university rules. The boy gradually becomes a radicalised man who seeks a target for his anger.

The winner of the SHORT RIGA Test Screenings and the recipient of the BBPosthouse Award, comprising post-production services worth €5,000, was Martinus Klemet’s short animation Yummy, while a Special Mention went to another animation: Edmunds Jansons’ Freeride (Brīvais nobrauciens).

The main award in the Short Film International Competition and the attendant €2,000 prize went to Barbara Rupik's Such Miracles Do Happen. The film is a fable based on the traditions of surrealism and animist beliefs. The jury gave a Special Mention to Julian Garcia Long's experimental short detective story The Despair of Monkeys. In the Midst of Chaos There Was Shape by Finnish filmmaker Saarlotta Virri was selected as Riga’s candidate for a nomination for Best European Short at the 2024 European Film Awards.

The winner of the Short Film National Competition and the recipient of a specially designed statuette and a cash prize of €1,000 was Ilze Ance Kazaka's animated short Debris (Gruzis). Finally, the winning music video in the Baltic Music Video Competition was Imposer by Carlos Lesmes, for the group The Lou Lous.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Golden Rooster
Family Time [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tia Kouvo
scheda film] - Tia Kouvo (Finland/Sweden)
Special Mention
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Anna Hints
scheda film] - Anna Hints (Estonia/France/Iceland)

Riga IFF Showcase winner
Europa - Jan Gebert (Czech Republic)

BBPosthouse Award
Yummy - Martinus Klemet (Estonia, short film)
Special Mention
Freeride - Edmunds Jansons (Latvia, short film)

Short Film International Competition winner
Such Miracles Do Happen - Barbara Rupik (short film)
Special Mention
The Despair of Monkeys - Julian Garcia Long (short film)

Candidate for a Nomination for Best European Short at the 2024 European Film Awards
In the Midst of Chaos There Was Shape - Saarlotta Virri (Finland, short film)

Short Film National Competition winner
Debris - Ilze Ance Kazaka (Latvia, short film)

Baltic Music Video Competition winner
Imposer - Carlos Lesmes (Estonia)