Competition line-up for 45th Tampere Film Festival announced

The 45th edition of the Tampere Film Festival has announced its full programme with the expected wide selection of shorts that runs the gamut from established award winners to brand new films for audiences and industry alike to discover.

The festival’s International Competition brings forth a number of films that have been awarded on the circuit and are undoubtedly being awaited by Finnish audiences. These include moving animation The Bigger Picture (Dir. Daisy Jacobs, UK, 2014) which has received both a BAFTA and Academy Award nomination , Obiekt (Dir. Paulina Skibińska, Poland, 2014), a film that was given a Short Film Special Jury Award for Visual Poetry at the Sundance Film Festival and The Chicken (Dir. Una Gunjak, Germany/Croatia,2013) the winner of the 2014 European Film Award for Best Short. Other highlights will include Dark Light (Dir. John Smith, UK, 2014) the latest film from the British filmmaker/artist , Estonian animation in Tik Tak (Dir. Ülo Pikkov, Estonia, 2014) and the powerful Latvian film Castratus The Boar (Dirs. Raitis Ābele & Lauris Ābele, Latvia, 2014)

The festival’s National Competition will some of the best shorts and feature documentaries that Finland has to offer. These will include Women in Love (Rakastuneita naisia) (Dir. Eeva Putro, Finland, 2014) from Finnish actor/director Eeva Putro and Listen (Kuuntele) (Dirs. Hamy Ramezan & Rungano Nyoni, Finland, 2014) the story of a Burqa wearing woman who, when filing a complaint to the police, soon discovers that the translator is not willing to report what she is saying. Co-director Ramezan had success in 2014 with his Iraq set film Keys of Paradise (Dir. Hamy Ramezan, Finland, 2014)

The 45th Tampere Film Festival runs from 4th-8th March 2015. Information on the International Competition can be found HERE and the National Competition HERE

04 February 2015, by Laurence Boyce