Alumni Student Films Continue to Win Awards in Italy Years Later
This week, the student films Heart of Stone (2024) and Third Wheel (2024) won Best Student Film awards at film festivals in Italy, more than three years after their production.
The film Heart of Stone (2024), directed by Greta Liht, a graduate of BFM’s 14th film arts class, won the Best Student Film award at the Rome Independent Cinema Festival. The film was produced as a bachelor’s thesis and also received awards for Best Director and Best Leading Actor at BFM’s student film festival, Best of BFM (BOB).
Heart of Stone follows Elo who is visiting her family on a small island. Her complicated relationship with her mother is just about to warm up, when her half-sister’s pet rat Siisik takes its last breath. The family dinner is interrupted by the need to send Siisik on a last farewell. The mother’s apathy towards the death of the pet rat triggers Elo and opens up a gate to the past, when her own grief was left unnoticed.
Third Wheel (2024), a film by Rauno Laikjõe, a graduate of BFM’s 15th film arts class, won the Best Student Film award at Florence film festival. The film was made as a second-year student project and has also been selected for BOB and PÖFF Shorts’ Shorts Alternatives programme.
Third Wheel shows the beauty and pain of young relationships through humor. Jaagup is on a date. Everything’s going quite smoothly and it’s about time to gear up. But how exactly? The rain and wind are picking up and making the date companion shiver. Now, it looks to be the time to advance some moves, but before Jaagup gets to it, a loud and blue car pulls over beside them. It’s their mutual friend, but more like an enemy for Jaagup, who has to man up to secure a spot in the girl's heart.
It is noteworthy that both films continue to win awards at festivals, even though more than three years have passed since their production and their creators have already graduated from BFM.
