Festival News 2008 - Tampereen 38. elokuvajuhlien verkkolehti

Animations were the favourites of both the jury and the audience

Tommi Tuominen
Maija Saari and Tampere film festival, photos
Johanna Eskelinen, translation

Madame Tutli-Putli sitting in the train.

Madame Tutli-Putli won the Grand Prixe in 2008 at Tampere Film festival. Chris Lavis and Macieck Szczerbowski have animated this Canadian film.

The winner of the International Competition of Tampere Film Festival was Madame Tutli-Putli, an animated film by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. Madame Tutli-Putli also got the award for Best Animation and the Audience Award of the international series.

The animation that has been the topic of raging debates in Finland, The Butterfly from Ural, was awarded the prize of the Best Finnish Animation. Director Katariina Lillqvist thinks that the prize will quieten the debates down a little. After the film festival, The Butterfly from Ural will be screened in Helsinki and in Niagara cinema in Tampere. The film will also tour film festivals abroad.

Palna's Daughters by Kiti Luostarinen was the winner of Risto Jarva Prize, and The Life Size Zoetrope by Mark Simon Hewis was awarded the Main Prize of the LAB1O Competition. René by Swiss Tobias Nölle was chosen as the Best Fiction, and the Best Documentary was Bidcatcher by Pim Zwier and Marc Schmidt from the Netherlands. The Pearce Sisters by Luis Cook got the Prix UIP Prize.

The level of films was stunning

Petri Kotwica, who was a member of the jury for the first time, found the job a lot of fun. This year the level of films was remarkably high.

In the series for over 30 minutes long films of the National Competition, the Main Prize was given to Pony Girls by Selma Vilhunen. Kotwica found this film beautiful and touching.

– The filmmaker has spent a lot of time with her topic, and the film clearly respects its subject.

High Hopes does not leak

In the series for under 30 minutes long films of the National Competition, the winner was High Hopes by Mazdak Nassir. Iranian-born Nassir studies directing in the University of Art and Design Helsinki. According to Nassir, who was a nominee for the first time, winning came as an utter surprise.

Mazdak Nassir was greeted with applauds at the pressconference.

Iranian-born Mazdak Nassir studies directing at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. According to Nassir, winning came as an utter surprise.

– I was supposed to become a writer, but I kept making too many spelling errors. However, there is nothing better than making films.

Petri Kotwica thinks that High Hopes does exactly what a short film at its best can do: shows a glimpse of the filmmaker’s reality. Kotwica sees High Hopes as a complete work that has no leaks whatsoever.

Nassir is not sure whether he gets to keep the 5000 euros that High Hopes won or if the money goes to University of Art and Design Helsinki. If the money ends up in Nassir’s own pocket, he promises to throw a big party to his crew.

Girls’ Night Out appealed to the audience

Girls’ Night Out by Reetta Aalto was awarded both the Audience Award and the Resource Award of the National Competition. Aalto was especially glad that her film had appealed to the audience.

Winning is already familiar to Aalto, who won the Student Award last year.

Press release of competition juries. Text is in Finnish and English. Awarded_films_2008.doc

Updated 14 March 2008 16:06