Animation Niko & The Way to the Stars collects Jussi Award for Best Picture of 2008

print this

The annual gala presentation of the Jussi Awards (the Finnish equivalent of the Oscars) was held on Sunday night in Helsinki’s Cable Factory.
     
The prize for Best Picture of 2008 went to Niko - lentäjän poika (Niko & The Way to the Stars), produced by Petteri Pasanen and Hannu Tuomainen. This is an animation about Niko, a young reindeer in Lapland, who suffers from vertigo but learns to overcome his fear.
      The film won an additional award for Best Script (Hannu Tuomainen and Marteinn Thorisson).
      The Home of Dark Butterflies, directed by Dome Karukoski, which had received ten nominations, eventually picked up three Jussis: for Best Direction, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Editing.
     
The People's Choice Award also went to The Home of Dark Butterflies.
      The film Putoavia enkeleitä (Falling Angels) collected the awards for Best Actor (Tommi Korpela), Best Actress (Elena Leeve), and Best Supporting Actress (Elina Knihtilä).
      Putoavia enkeleitä is based on poet Aila Meriluoto’s book Lauri Viita: Legenda jo eläessään (”The legend of Lauri Viita”), which depicts the marriage of Aila Meriluoto and poet Lauri Viita.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  The Home of Dark Butterflies is Finland´s nominee for Foreign-Language Film Oscar (18.9.2008)

See also:
  Director Petri Kotwica´s second feature film Musta Jää (Black Ice) competes at Berlin Film Festival (11.2.2008)
  Double victory for Finnish animated feature at Dutch film festival (27.10.2008)

Links:
  IMDB: Jussi Awards (will be updated with 2008 shortly)
  IMDB: Niko & The Way to the Stars
  IMDB: Falling Angelsa

Helsingin Sanomat