28/10/2019 - The sixth edition of the Latvian festival saw the triumph of Karolis Kaupinis’ Nova Lituania

Karolis Kaupinis collects the Riga IFF Award for the Best Feature Film for Nova Lituania (© Riga IFF)

It’s a wrap for the 6th edition of Riga International Film Festival (Riga IFF), which took place from 17-27 October this year. Karolis Kaupinis’ Nova Lituania [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karolis Kaupinis
film profile] snagged the most important prize, the Riga IFF Award. The Lithuanian helmer’s feature revolves around an eccentric geography professor (played by Aleksas Kazanavičius) who, sensing the upcoming political turmoil of World War II, has the wild idea of creating a “backup” homeland on a distant island.

Meanwhile, the FIPRESCI Jury Award went to Estonian-French-Belgian co-production Scandinavian Silence [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martti Helde
film profile] by Martti Helde, also recipient of the People’s Choice Award. Finally, the Latvian strand of Russian festival Artdocfest awarded Ksenia Okhapkina’s Immortal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ksenia Okhapkina
film profile]. The Estonian-Latvian documentary had a very successful festival run since it won the Grand Prix for Best Documentary Film at Karlovy Vary in July.

The prestigious Baltic film event featured over 140 films across 11 sections and competition programmes, bringing together contemporary European cinema and classics, festival hits and directorial debuts. Screenings took place at various cultural venues around the Latvian capital, including Splendid Palace, Kino Suns, Kino Bize, Café Film Noir and the National Library. The festival was opened on 17 October with Gints Zilbalodis’ 3D animated feature Away [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gints Zilbalodis
film profile], winner of the Contrechamp Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Here is the complete list of award winners:

Feature Film Competition

Riga IFF Award
Nova Lituania [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karolis Kaupinis
film profile] – Karolis Kaupinis (Lithuania)

Special Mention
Animus Animalis (A Story about People, Animals and Things) [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aistė Žegulytė
film profile] – Aistė Žegulytė (Lithuania)

FIPRESCI Latvian Section Jury Award
Scandinavian Silence [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martti Helde
film profile] – Martti Helde (Estonia/France/Belgium)

Splendid Palace People’s Choice Award
Scandinavian Silence – Martti Helde

Short Riga International Competition

Best Short Film
Uncle Thomas, Accounting for the Days – Regina Pessoa (Portugal/Canada/France)

Special Mentions
Community Gardens – Vytautas Katkus (Lithuania)
Operation Jane Walk – Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner (Austria)

Short Riga Baltic Music Video Competition

Best Music Video
Garbanotas – Liūdnos akys – Titas Sūdžius (Lithuania)

Special Mention
Puuluup – Kasekesed – Taavi Arus (Estonia)

Kids Weekend Feature Film Competition

Riga IFF Children’s Jury Diploma – Best Film
Rocca Changes the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Katja Benrath (Germany)

Artdocfest/Riga

Grand Prix
Immortal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ksenia Okhapkina
film profile] - Ksenia Okhapkina (Estonia/Latvia)

Best Director
Maxim Shved - Pure Art (Poland/Belarus) (medium-length film)

Jury Award
School of Seduction [+see also:
interview: Alina Rudnitskaya
film profile] - Alina Rudnitskaya (Austria/Denmark/Norway/Russia)

Special Mentions
Daymohk – The Ancestral Land - Masha Novikova (Netherlands)
State Funeral [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Sergei Loznitsa (Netherlands/Lithuania)