Tampere Film Festival Awards Have Been Announced

Tampere Film Festival’s International Competition Grand Prix goes to Suzannah Mirghani’s fiction film, Al-Sit (Sudan, Qatar 2020). The International Jury found the film to be told in a simple but profound way, presenting sincere qualities that seem to come from another time, but touch upon a very modern problem: a conflict between different values – profit and progress versus tradition. The jury was touched by the way this contemporary fable was cast, acted and envisioned.

The International Jury consisted of Per Fikse, Randa Maroufi, Juho Kuosmanen, Tristan Priimägi and Mikaela Westerlund.

Julie Caty’s Normal (France 2020) won the Best Animation Category Prize and the Best Documentary Category Prize went to Shadows of Your Childhood (Russia 2020) by Mikhail Gorobchuk. The Best Fiction Category Prize was awarded to Li Yue’s A Lucid Dream (China 2020) and the Tampere Short Film Candidacy for the European Film Awards 2021 went to Rona Segal’s short documentary Mission: Hebron (Israel 2020).

The International Jury also wanted to hand out three Special Mentions, to Henriette Rietz’s Wochenbett (Germany 2020), Sudarshan Suresh’s Mizaru (India 2019) and Asma Ghanem, Christopher Marianetti and Alexia Webster’s Wall Piano (Palestine 2020). Wall Piano also received the Audience Award of the International Competition.

National Competition

In the under 30 minutes category of the National Competition of the Festival, the main Prize was awarded to Sawandi Groskind’s Where to Land (Finland 2020). The film’s cinematographer Karl Henrik Edlund won the Golden Shade Equipment Rental Prize (made possible by the Light House and the Camera House). The jury was particularly impressed by the poetic cinematography which masters the light and the shadow – the basics of cinema. At the same time the images are truly original, highlighting the textures and traveling effortlessly from day to night and from woods to interiors.

The national Competition Jury consisted of Rimantė Daugėlaitė, Hamy Ramezan and Kaisu Tervonen.

The Main Prize in the Over 30 Minutes category was awarded to Joonas Neuvonen and Sadri Cetinkaya’s documentary Lost Boys (Finland 2020). The jury found the film to be “an intense, emotionally impactful documentary drama, a cinematic adventure deeply involving the viewer into the main character’s world from the very first moment until the end. This is a melancholic story of friendships and of a vacation which turns into chaos and tragedy.”

The National Competition Special Prize in the under 30 minutes category was handed to
Saara Hakkarainen‘s documentary Hiljaisuus (Finland 2020) and Mohamed El Aboud’s School of Hope (Finland, France, Morocco 2020) won the Special Prize in the over 30 minutes category.

Marjo Levlin’s experimental documentary Ellipsis (Finland 2020) received the Risto Jarva Prize and Suvi West’s documentary Eatnameamet – Min jaskes dáistaleapmi (Finland 2021) won the Church Media Foundation Prize as well as the National Competition Audience Award.

The National Competition Student Award was handed to Marlena Martikainen’s Halpoja tahroja (Finland 2020). The Youth Jury Prize went to Tatu Pohjavirta’s All Tender Things (Finland 2020) and Samuel Häkkinen and Henna Välkky’s Päätös N:O 30001 (Finland 2020) received a Youth Jury Special Mention. Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa, Pirkanmaa Film Centre and Tampere Film Festival held a youth short film workshop at Lielahti upper comprehensive school, and the winning film, the animation Tomaatin mielessä was awarded with the Youth Short Film Workshop Award.

Generation XYZ and the European Audience Awards

This year, Tampere Film Festival launched the Generation XYZ competition for under 30 minute genre films in collaboration with the American production company XYZ Films. Adrien Jeannot’s The Last Men (France 2020) won the Best Genre Film Award. The jury also handed out a Special Mention Fanni Szilágyi and Gábor Szilágy’s Tien Shinhan (Hungary 2020).

Virpi Suutari’s short documentary Kansanradio – Runonlaulajien maa (Finland 2021) was voted as the Tampere Nominee for the European Audience Award (European Short Film Audience Award).

Check out the list of awards here:
AWARDED FILMS AND FINANCIERS