31-03-2012

FESTIVALS: Polish Courage Wins Vilnius Main Prize

By FNE Staff

    {mosimage}VILNIUS: The Polish film Courage (www.opusfilm.com) directed by Greg Zglinski won the New Europe-New Names competition of the Vilnius IFF (15-29 March 2012, www.kinopavasaris.lt).

    The international jury consisted of Swedish film critic Jan Lumholdt, Macedonian actress and producer Labina Mitevska, Latvian director Maris Martinsons, Cuban actress and director Mirta Ibarra and Russian cinematographer and director Pavel Kostomarov. "We decided unanimously to award this film for the way it shows the contradictions of human in conflict situation. The film reveals it without any stereotypes and makes the viewer think," Ibarra said in awarding the main prize to Courage. The prize included an award of 7,000 euros.

    The jury gave awards to three actresses: Ada Condeescu for her role in Loverboy (www.stradafilm.ro), Serbian actress Isidor Simijonovic for Clip and debuting Bulgarian actress Anjela Nedyalkova for Ave (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

    The best director award went to Romanian director Adrian Sitaru for Best Intentions (www.hifilm.ro). The film was received the prize of the International (He)Art Cinema Network (CICAE).

    The winner of short film competition was Infinite Minutes from Hungarian director Cecilia Felmeri. The jury gave a special prize to Beast directed by Attila Till from Hungary.

    Albina Griniutė's A Place we Call Home was named the best Lithuanian debut.

    Lithuanian director Rokas Eltermanas' The Last Day of the Honeymoon won the audience favorite prize. The Audience Choice Award winner was the French comedy Untouchable .

    The Best Lithuanian film actress of the year went to Toma Vaskeviciute.

    The festival continues in satellite cities Kaunas, Panevezys, Siauliai, and Klaipeda.