Competitions: Millennium Award

This year 18 films compete in the main competition for the Millennium Award and 8 000 euros. The jury, consisting of: Dorota Kędzierzawska, Nino Kirtadze and Joonas Berghäll, will select the winning film. The award is funded by Millennium Bank.

Jury

Dorota Kędzierzawska

Born in 1957 in Lodz. Polish director of feature and documentary films, editor, screenwriter. Kędzierzawska graduated from the National Film School in Lodz (PWSFTviT) in 1981 but prior to that had completed a course in cultural studies at the University of Lodz and studied film directing in Moscow for two years. She is the director of several acclaimed films, such as “Crows”, “Nothing, I Am”, and “Devils, Devils”. In her films she concentrates on the experiences of disadvantaged children who contend with a difficult financial situation, rejection by adults, or both..




Nino Kirtadze

Nino Kirtadze was born in 1968 in Tbilisi, Georgia. She holds a degree in literature. Her script for a full-length feature film (“Monday”) won the best script award from the Georgian Union of Cinematographers in 1991. She began her acting career by playing the lead role in “Chef In Love” by Nana Djordjadze which was selected at Cannes in 1996 and nominated for an Oscar. During the troubles of the 1990s in the Caucasus, she worked as a war correspondent for AFP and for AP, covering the war in Chechnya and other armed conflicts in the region. Since 1997, Nino Kirtadze has lived in France, where she has worked with Peter Brook, Jean-Pierre Ameris, Philippe Monnier, Claude Goretta and Olivier Langlois. Kirtadze is a member of the French writers’ and directors’ society LA SCAM and a member of the European Film Academy. Nino Kirtadze collaborates on a regular basis with different national and international organizations as a consultant, jury member, lecturer, and tutor. Her powerful feature-length documentaries deal with controversial subjects, always placing the accent on the human drama underlying her stories and creating deep insightful human portraits. Her camera turns the natural into the supernatural and back again, blending together the personal and the universal without black-and-white romanticism. Nino Kirtadze’s films have won international acclaim and numerous prestigious awards at festivals worldwide, including World Cinema Best Director Prize at Sundance FF for her “Durakovo – Village of Fools” (2007) and European Film Academy Best Documentary Prize for “Pipeline Next Door” (2005)




Joonas Berghäll

Born in 1977 in Kemi. He has studied film producing (2000-2005) at the Tampere University of Applied Sciences, School of Art and Media. He has been involved in film making since 1998. Today he is a film producer and owner of the Oktober Production Company. Documentary films produced by him, ”The Smoking Room” and ”A Shout into the Wind”, were awarded the State Quality Support for cinema productions in Finland in 2007 and 2008. Besides of producing, he also directs films, latest of his works as director is documentary film ”Steam of Life”, directed with Mika Hotakainen. This film won Millennium Award at PLANETE+ DOC FF in 2010 and Main Award at Docaviv Festival. It was Finnish entry to the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination and was nominated for the European Film Award in 2010. His films have been screened over 100 international film festivals and received numerous film awards.