Report: 27th Tromsø International Film Festival 2017

Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) was established in 1991 and has become Norway’s biggest film festival and at the same time, an important meeting point for Norwegian and international film industry. TIFF 2017 was the 27th edition of the festival. This year’s program consists of various parts such as the competition program, Norwegian horizons, Horizon East, Focus Turkey, Critic´s Choice Films from the North, Focus Skate, Horizons and seminars. The Film Festival was very good organized and whole city lived with in love to cinema. A special program celebrated the 100 anniversary of the first Sami National Convention and the 30 year anniversary of the film Pathfinder (Nils Gaup) a milestone in Norwegian film history. Due to this date the film was presented in a special film concert in a live performance with new music played by five extraordinary musicians.

This year´s FICC-jury consists of: Maria Amalie Rikardsen from Norway, Günther Kinstler from Germany and Maciej Gil from Poland. The competition program included 12 films. These were: The Age of the shadows (Kim Jee Woon, South-Korea 2016), Christine (Antonio Campos, USA/UK 2016), Graduation (Cristian Mungiu Romania 2016), The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, USA 2015), Hearthstone (Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundson, Iceland 2016), House without roof (Soleen Yusef, Germany, Kurdistan 2016), The last family (Robert Bolesto, Poland 2016), Louise by the shore (Jean-François Laguionie, France, Canada 2016), My father’s wings (Kivanc Sezer, Turkey 2016), Neruda (Pablo Larrain, Argentina, France, Spain 2016), News from planet Mars (Dominik Moll, France 1016).

The FICC jury awarded The Don Quixote Prize to the film Hearthstone by Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundson. “This year’s winning film tells the universal coming-of-age story in a way that touched our hearts. The high quality of performances, particularly by non-professional, young actors, truly impressed us. The experience of being an outsider is sad, however the movie leaves the audience hope for the future. The jury firmly believes that the art of cinema is the art of emotion.”

Günther Kinstler (BJF Germany)