Given the current pessimism in movie circles, the figures coming in from Finland are encouraging to say the least. With nearly 950,000 ticket sales, there have already been more viewers of Finnish films in January and February 2006 than in all of 2005.Aleksi Makela’s "Matti – Hell Is For Heroes" (photo), a fictional film based on the life of ski-jumper Matti Nykanen written by Marko Leino, leads the way. Romantic sports comedy "FC Venus" (written by Outi Keskevaari, Katri Manninen and Joona Tena) follows, with Pekka Karjalainen’s comedy "Jackpot" following. Yet there have also been two - "Mother Of Mine" and "Beauty And The Bastard" - that have been running since September and October respectively. Overall, it means that the local share of the market is an incredible 55%.
For the full report, see the Finnish Film Foundation.
Germany's FilmFestival Cottbus, dedicated to East-European movies, just wrapped. Main prize for the Best Film in the Feature Film Competition went to "Schizo (Schiza)" by Gulshad (Guka) Omarowa, a Russian-Kazakh-French-German co-production. Sulev Keedus was awarded the Special Prize for Best Direction for the Estonian-Finnish co-production "Somnabul". The Special Prize for an outstanding artistic individual achievement went to the Croatian film "A Wonderful Night in Split (Ta Divna Splitska Noc)" by Arsen Anton Ostojic. A Special Mention was given to the Polish film "The Wedding (Wesele) by Wojtek Smarzowski. See