BFM's graduation movie won the short genre film award at HÕFF

A total of 33 feature films and five short film cassettes were screened at the festival. The best Estonian genre film award went to the historical thriller "Shadow", directed by Jaak Kilmi.

The jury named Elis Rumma's film "Ära ole uhke" (Come Sit With Us) as the best short Estonian genre film. The film, which was completed as a BFM film major thesis, is based on Piret Raud's short story "The Bench".

It's midsummer night and in the second half of the twenties, Lola has come to midsummer fire with her partner. Local women invite Lola to sit on a bench and match their acquaintance. He doesn't want to seem arrogant and accepts their invitation. At first, all women's worries are foreign to her, but as the evening progresses, she begins to question her current perspectives, and as a result of the long benching, she grows together with the country women in her own way.

"A huge amount has been conveyed with a small amount of action: it created a pleasantly uncomfortable feeling that forced you to watch until the end. A brilliant idea, supported by excellent execution," was the jury's reasoning.

According to the festival's organizing team, the most emotional short film was BFM film student Johanna Viskari's "Augusti karjäär" (How much for this?). The film tells the story of a man named August, who spends his days walking around the Männik quarry looking for customers. He pushes his cart full of snacks along the beach sand and tries to sell people what he thinks they might need. However, a competitor appears on August's territory, which makes August doubt what he is doing.

Watch PÖFF TV's (in English) interview with Elis Rumma, where he talks about his film "Don't Be Proud", which was also screened at PÖFF in the fall.

The BoB student film festival will start at BFM on May 15th, and hopefully both of the short films mentioned here will also make it to its program.