On Saturday, the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival came to a close with Spanish family drama “The Good Daughter” by Júlia de Paz Solvas winning both the prestigious Grand Prix and the Audience Award at the event held in Estonia. The film looks at complex family dynamics through the eyes of a teenage girl and captured both jury and audience acclaim.
Turkish director Ali Vatansever won Best Director for his innovative film “LifeLike,” which explores death and transcendence with portions filmed in VRChat. The other big winners were Christian Bonke’s “Hercules Falling” as Best Film in the First Feature Competition and Samuel Abrahams’ “Lady,” for which he won Best Director in the same category.
The Best Film award in the Critics’ Picks Competition was given to “China Sea” by Jurg Matulečius, while Best Director went to Matías Szulanski for an intense view of social and economic decay in Argentina in “A Summer Tale”. “The Baronesses” by Nabil Benadir and Rokht Badaoui won in the Rebels With a Cause category, while Rógan Graham took the Best Director prize for the road movie “Blindsight.”
In the Baltic Film Competition, the Best Film prize was awarded to “The Visitor” by Vytautas Katkus, and the award for Best Director went to Rugilebonaite for her first feature “Renovation.” Lifetime achievement awards in the festival also went to Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner and Estonian director Janno Põldma.
