FNE at Vilnius IFF 2013: Top prize for Polish film Loving

29-03-2013

FNE at Vilnius IFF 2013: Top prize for Polish film Loving

By Michal Klimkiewicz

Loving, director Sławomir Fabricki

VILNIUS: The top prize at the 18^th Vilnius International Film Festival went to Polish director Sławomir Fabricki for his drama Loving/ Miłość. The festival held from 18-28 March 2013 has a main competition of first and second films from the Central and Eastern European region with more than 250 films screened during the event.

Fabricki who has had a string of festival successes including screening at Sundance FF earlier this year takes home a 7000 EUR prize. Slovak director Mira Fornay won the Best Director award for her feature film My Dog Killer which had already picked up the Rotterdam Tiger award.

Guests at the closing ceremony were treated to a screening of Hungarian director Gyorgy Palfi’s innovative new film collage The Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen, a compilation of clips and images from over 500 famous films from the past. The film is produced by TT Filmmuhely. Lithuanian actress Valda Bickute received a special award as best Lithuanian actress which includes a trip to Paris as the prize..

The jury for the main competition, titled New Europe-New Names was made up of Palestinian actor Ali Sulimana, Romanian actress Ada Condeescu, Croatian actor Leon Lučevas, Italian film critic Gianni Ottone and Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu and screenwriter.

For the short film competition 25 films from the region were selected to compete with the main prize going to a film from Poland Munk Studios, Whistle, directed by Grzegorz Zariczny.

Since 2010 the festival has organized the Young Lithuanian Filmmaker’s Awards. This year the competition featured 15 student films from Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius Academy of Arts and Skalvija Film Academy

Prize Winners:

Best Film: Loving directed by Slawomir Fabicki

Production: Odeon Film Studio

Supported by Polish Film Institute

Best Director: My Dog Killer directed by Mira Fornay

Production: Mirafox (Slovakia), Cineart TV Prague (Czech Republic)

Supported by Slovak Film Institute

Best Actor: Dan Chioreaną for his role in Rocker directed by Marian Crisan

Production: Mandragora Productions (Romania) with support of Romanian CNC

Best Lithuanian Actress: Valda Bickute

CICAE Award: Keep Smiling directed by Rusudan Chkonia (Georgia)

Production: Doc & Film International (France)