He pointed out that there was a large and voluminous collection of Latvian cinema this year. This is related both to the objective delays in previews caused by the pandemic, as cinemas have been temporarily closed, and to the positive trend that the film industry has received additional funding during the pandemic, allowing professionals to work in the sector.
According to Rietumas, the large number of films that premiered this fall and will be in demand Cristapa the Great the award was largely influenced by the fact that films were created as a means to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, the range of films was complemented by several low-budget films made with the support of NKC, Ministry of Culture and State Fund for Cultural Capital.
At the press conference, the head of the NKC emphasized that Latvian cinema operates in a broad and complex context of European and even world cinema. The competition is getting stronger every year and it’s not so easy for Latvian cinema to break through to world attention and recognition, he said.
Rietuma expressed his delight that the European Film Academy Awards will be held in Reykjavík on December 10, where the film directed by Signe Baumane is a real contender for the award. My wedding planwhich has already been named Cristapa the Great category award Best animated film.
The NKC head stressed that although Baumane’s film has four strong competitors representing “large European countries”, mainly France, this is the first time in Latvian cinema – a Latvian film, which is a cooperation project with the Luxembourg and the United States, is applying for the European Film Academy Award.
Representative of the Latvian branch of the International Federation of Film Critics, film scientist Zane Balčus, noted during the press conference that the jury saw a total of more than 80 films presented at the festival this year. There has been a lot of competition in the feature film category, which applies to both the films themselves and their creators.
Balčus pointed out that in recent years, a wide range of film professionals have been attracted to film ratings, each of which can make its own contribution. On the other hand, speaking of the evaluation of the films and the agreement on the nominations, the filmmaker underlined that each of the members of the jury evaluated the films taking into account their professional knowledge. There were categories for which there was a unanimous decision among the experts, but there were also those that required more time for discussion.
He pointed out that short films are quite a difficult category because there are so few of these works. Also, during the selection, it was almost necessary to decide whether to keep this category, but since there are quite strong works of young authors, this year three short films are included in this category.
According to Balčus, there were relatively few nominations in the animated film category. According to her, this is due to the fact that several animated feature films are currently being made in the country, the premiere of which is yet to come. The relatively small number of applications is also influenced by the involvement of animation film professionals in new projects. However, the judging panel decided that all the animated films submitted were of high quality and professional, so they too were nominated.
The film scholar has noticed this in recent years Cristapa the Great the number of categories has increased by adding another one: feature films. He stressed that this year has been one of the categories that experts have been discussing a lot.
