The twenty-ninth Molodist international film festival ended on the last day of October in Kyiv's Ukrayina Palace. The current cinema forum became first in many respects, not only in terms of representative level but also in terms of public interest: festival shows drew over 100,000 spectators in ten days. As Molodist director Andriy Khalpakhchi admitted, this is the absolute record for three decades. This surge of interest was caused both by the number (over 80 films in four contest nominations and over 120 out of contest) and quality of the films shown. Competition was very bitter, especially among documentary, short and full-length feature films, while many contest pictures made by young debuting directors were in no way inferior to the works of masters presented in various retrospectives and specialized shows. The Scythian Deer grand prix, plus a $100,000 prize, were taken by the Russian documentary Bread Day telling about the life in a seedy S. Petersburg working-class suburb. Australia's Aquarium ranked best among films made by students. The short-length prize, subtitling worth $2500 by Laser Video Title, was shared by the witty Desserts (Scotland) and psychological thriller Cream Puff (USA). The first among the documentaries became the Belgian-Mongolian State of Dogs. Spectators, as usual, had preferences of their own, so they voted for the German picture Tuvalu, which consequently took the audience choice award. Among full length films, an unconditional victory, reinforced by the FIPRESSI and Junior Jury prizes, was won by Fucking Amal (Sweden-Denmark), which had already caused ripples in Europe. In toto, over twenty films won various prizes. But, as the International Jury chairman, famous Dutch director Jos Stelling, stressed at the final press conference, the main prize should be conferred on the Ukrainian audiences which he characterized as extremely open, generous, and friendly to the art of film-making.

#42  November, 16 1999  «The Day»

In using our publications, reference to The Day is mandatory
© "The Day" http://www.day.kiev.ua