10th

Olympia International Film Festival

for Children & Young People 

1-8 December 2007

• SPECIAL MENTION to the short animated film A TELL-TALE HEART (Annette Jung, Germany, 2006), for its excellent adaptation of the spirit of Edgar Alan Poe for the big screen.

• CIFEJ AWARD – Centre International du Film pour l’ Enfant et la Jeunesse, to the feature film MUKHSIN (Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysia, 2006) for being pervaded by values that follow the spirit and the principles of CIFEJ, concentrating on humanism and love through a simple and touching story of a girl that grows up in modern Malaysia.

• BEST YOUNG ACTRESS, FEATURE FILM to Ninal Kervel (Anna) from the feature film BLAME IT ON FIDEL (Julie Gavras, France, 2006) for the rendering of a dynamic girl who is forced to mature quickly because of the continuous changes in political life.

• BEST YOUNG ACTOR, FEATURE FILM ex aequo to the four boys Sarath Kumar K. (Unni), Ajith V.N. (Gopi), Noble N.L. (Raju) and Likhil T.S. (Ramu) from the feature film UNNI, LIFE IS ALL ABOUT FRIENDS (Murali Nair, India -France, 2007)  for the naturalistic and charismatic embodiment of four adolescents who live in the countryside of India.   

• SCREENPLAY to Julie Gavras for the script of the feature film BLAME IT ON FIDEL(Julie Gavras, France, 2006) for the essential reintroduction of political speech with humor, sense and optimism.

• DIRECTION to Inesa Kurklietyte for directing the feature film CROW LAKE (Inesa Kurklietyte, Lithuania, 2007) for the totally convincing and naturalistic instruction and the deeply poetic atmosphere. 

• BEST SHORT ANIMATED FILM to the film MY LOVE (Alexander Petrov, Russia, 2006) for its marvelous result that emerged from the combination of visual aesthetics, music and literature.

• BEST SHORT FICTION FILM to the film BALUBA RUNA (Christian Lo, Norway, 2007) for supporting a simple story with frugal media.

• BEST FEATURE FILM to the film MUKHSIN (Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysia, 2006) for the wonderful interpretation of the feeling of love with realism, imagination and poetic essence.

• UNICEF AWARD to the feature film UNNI, LIFE IS ALL ABOUT FRIENDS (Murali Nair, India -France, 2007)  

• BEST SHORT ANIMATED FILM to the film ZHIHARKA (Oleg Uzhinov, Russia, 2006)

• BEST SHORT FICTION FILM to the film BALUBA RUNA (Christian Lo, Norway, 2007)

• BEST FEATURE FILM to the film BLAME IT ON FIDEL (Julie Gavras, France, 2006)

Representative of the Greek department of UNICEF: Manos Kontoleon