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Naima Mohamud’s “Halima” has won the best project award at this year’s Haugesund Film Festival.
Jurors Bartholomew Sammut, Magdalena Banasik and Petri Kemppinen appreciated the project’s “immense amount of warmth and empathy” and “touching and entertaining” pitch.
“[It’s] a film that delves into a story we haven’t yet seen come from Finland,” they argued.
“Halima” – produced by Jani Pösö and Anita Hyppönen for Finland’s It’s Alive Films, also behind Oscar entry “Euthanizer,” and Hannu Aukia for No-Office Films – unspools in the 1990s, when a 10-year-old Somali girl struggles to make friends. Her family, now based in Finland, moves far too often.
“Growing up Muslim and African in an often literally winter-white Finnish small town wasn’t easy – we stuck out like a pride of lions in a parking lot,” recalled Mohamud when talking to Variety. She’s now based in Dublin.
“It was a wild time. The hair! The clothes! I really wanted to go back to when boybands, Tamagotchis and popper pants were all the rage.”
Presented during the Nordic Co-production Market, the award comes with an invitation to participate in the Producers Network in Cannes and a grant of €3,500 ($3,895) in in-kind support from Totalpost Finland.
The Next Nordic Generation Award – amounting to NOK 20,000 ($1,891) and provided by CAPA – was given to the production team behind the best graduation film from the Nordic film schools, “Tape” by Candace Hui Wing Ki. Tobias Klemeyer Smith’s “Whatever City” got an honorable mention.
Meanwhile, Paola Cortellesi’s smash and box-office phenomenon “There’s Still Tomorrow,” set in postwar 1940s Italy, continued to thrill international audiences, picking up the Audience Award and the Eurimages’ Audentia Award, the latter coming with a cash prize of €30,000 ($33,399) and intended to promote greater gender equality in the European film industry.
“There were a lot of beautiful, amazing and different movies we had to watch, but one stood out in particular. The story is touching and intense – you have to see how it ends. And just when you think you know, you slowly realize, with a tear in your eye and a smile, that you were wrong all the time,” said jurors Martin Mentzoni, Olav Andre Åserød Myklebust, Torunn Steensnæs, Lidia Fyllingsnes and Ingvild Konstanse Bentsen.
Their Audentia Award colleagues – Iram Haq, Ståle Stein Berg and Benedicte Danielsen – agreed, calling Cortellesi’s drama a “modern masterpiece”: “We were captivated by the film’s extraordinary formal precision, cinematic playfulness and its unique ability to blend a classic melodrama with both serious themes and humor […] Little did we know that a clever revitalization of Italian neorealism was exactly what we needed today.”
Finally, the Ray of Sunshine Award – for the film that “excites and spreads the most joy” – was given to “The Last Journey,” directed by Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson.
“This is one of those films that manages to put the entire cinema in the same good, electric mood, with tears and laughter intertwined. It’s a fantastic film to experience together, where we truly understand that movies are best in the cinema, and it has been highlighted by everyone who has seen it at the festival,” stated the jurors, predicting it will be “the feel-good documentary of the fall.”
The 52nd Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund will wrap on August 23, 2024. Odd Einar Ingebretsen’s “Enough” was selected as this year’s closing film.
Full list of awards:
Best Project Award
“Halima,” dir. Naima Mohamud
Next Nordic Generation Award
“Tape,” dir. Candace Hui Wing Ki
Special Mention
“Whatever City,” dir. Tobias Klemeyer Smith
Audience Award
“There’s Still Tomorrow,” dir. Paola Cortellesi
Eurimages’ Audentia Award
“There’s Still Tomorrow”
Ray of Sunshine Award
“The Last Journey,” dir. Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson
English (US) ·