With all the Hollywood glamour and star-studded red carpets that awards season entail, sometimes the craft and talent behind the films get overlooked. Last week, the Asc handed out their annual awards celebrating the most impressive achievements in cinematography, and we were happily surprise to see Peter Flinckenberg win the Asc Spotlight Award for "Concrete Night." Showcasing flawless, expressive, black-and-white cinematography, recognizing this intimate film was definitely a wise decision.
Read More: Interview with Dir. Pirjo Honkasalo on the Visually Stunning "Concrete Night"
The film was directed by Pirjo Honkasalo and it was chosen as Finland's Oscar entry in the Best Foreign Language Film race. This is the first time that a Finnish DoP was nominated, let along won a major tech award from an American association. The American Society of Cinematographers created this award last year to recognize new or forward thinking talent. The other nominees were Darius Khondji, Asc, Afc, for "The Immigrant" and Daniel Lavin, Bsc, for "Under the Skin."
“These nominees have created some of the more inspiring and imaginative visuals our members have seen recently,” said Asc Awards Chairman Lowell Peterson. “We’re proud to recognize their innovative work, and we hope at the same time to raise the profile of these films, so more audiences have a chance to see them.”
Read More: Tribeca Review - "Love and Engineering"
Flinckenberg is one of the most courageous and experienced cinematographers of the younger film generation in Finland. He has worked both in documentaries and features, and his latest works include the Oscar® nominated short "Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?"(by Selma Vilhunen, 2012), "Miss Blue Jeans" (by Matti Kinnunen, 2012), "Love and Engineering" (by Tonislav Hristov, 2014, Tribeca Film Festival) and "Pixadores" (by Amir Escandari, 2014, Idfa).
"Concrete Night" marks Finnish director Pirjo Honkasalo’s return to fiction, following years of internationally acclaimed documentaries. This boldly shot drama about the fateful misinterpretation of brotherly advise continues Honkasalo’s equally strong hand in fiction. The film clearly builds on her earlier features that premiered in Cannes, Venice and Locarno, which landed Honkasalo a spot in Tiff’s prestigious Master Series in 2013, which in previous years included Bernardo Bertolucci, Abbas Kiarostami and Michael Haneke
Based on a 1981 novel by leading author and Pirjo's life partner Pirkko Saisio, "Concrete Night" charts the last day and night of two young brothers as they roam around dreary high-rises and a hot, unforgiving Helsinki. Honkasalo envelops their dynamic in a dream-like noir tension, which leads Simo, the younger brother to emulate his brother Ilkka, who is due to start his prison sentence the next day. A boundless admiration for Ilkka, his only available role model, leads Simo to look for his identity in all the wrong places.
The film was produced by Bufo. Founded in 2007 by producers Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff and screenwriter Vesa Virtanen, Bufo has produced a number of fiction films of which many have received international recognition.
Despite all the acclaim and recognition, "Concrete Night" is still looking for a U.S. Distributor to bring this hypnotic coming-of-age tale to American screens. World sales for the film are handled by nm5579306 autoXavier Rashid[/link]'s Film Republic.
Read More: Interview with Dir. Pirjo Honkasalo on the Visually Stunning "Concrete Night"
The film was directed by Pirjo Honkasalo and it was chosen as Finland's Oscar entry in the Best Foreign Language Film race. This is the first time that a Finnish DoP was nominated, let along won a major tech award from an American association. The American Society of Cinematographers created this award last year to recognize new or forward thinking talent. The other nominees were Darius Khondji, Asc, Afc, for "The Immigrant" and Daniel Lavin, Bsc, for "Under the Skin."
“These nominees have created some of the more inspiring and imaginative visuals our members have seen recently,” said Asc Awards Chairman Lowell Peterson. “We’re proud to recognize their innovative work, and we hope at the same time to raise the profile of these films, so more audiences have a chance to see them.”
Read More: Tribeca Review - "Love and Engineering"
Flinckenberg is one of the most courageous and experienced cinematographers of the younger film generation in Finland. He has worked both in documentaries and features, and his latest works include the Oscar® nominated short "Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?"(by Selma Vilhunen, 2012), "Miss Blue Jeans" (by Matti Kinnunen, 2012), "Love and Engineering" (by Tonislav Hristov, 2014, Tribeca Film Festival) and "Pixadores" (by Amir Escandari, 2014, Idfa).
"Concrete Night" marks Finnish director Pirjo Honkasalo’s return to fiction, following years of internationally acclaimed documentaries. This boldly shot drama about the fateful misinterpretation of brotherly advise continues Honkasalo’s equally strong hand in fiction. The film clearly builds on her earlier features that premiered in Cannes, Venice and Locarno, which landed Honkasalo a spot in Tiff’s prestigious Master Series in 2013, which in previous years included Bernardo Bertolucci, Abbas Kiarostami and Michael Haneke
Based on a 1981 novel by leading author and Pirjo's life partner Pirkko Saisio, "Concrete Night" charts the last day and night of two young brothers as they roam around dreary high-rises and a hot, unforgiving Helsinki. Honkasalo envelops their dynamic in a dream-like noir tension, which leads Simo, the younger brother to emulate his brother Ilkka, who is due to start his prison sentence the next day. A boundless admiration for Ilkka, his only available role model, leads Simo to look for his identity in all the wrong places.
The film was produced by Bufo. Founded in 2007 by producers Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff and screenwriter Vesa Virtanen, Bufo has produced a number of fiction films of which many have received international recognition.
Despite all the acclaim and recognition, "Concrete Night" is still looking for a U.S. Distributor to bring this hypnotic coming-of-age tale to American screens. World sales for the film are handled by nm5579306 autoXavier Rashid[/link]'s Film Republic.
- 2/27/2015
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
The Transilvania International Film Festival’s (Tiff) main prize went this year to Spanish film-maker Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Stockholm as the week-long festival came to a close on June 8.
The second feature also picked up the Best Performance Award for leads Javier Pereira and Aura Garrido at the gala awards ceremony on Saturday evening (7).
Almost lost for words as he accepted the prize on the stage of Cluj’s National Theatre, an elated Sorogoyen (pictured) said that these were the film’s first international awards.
Stockholm previously earned best actress and new screenwriter honours in Malaga last year and a Goya this year for Pereira.
Tiff’s international jury including Chicago Film Festival director Michael Kutza, Nfts director Nik Powell and Hungarian film-maker Janos Szasz, presented their Best Directing Award to Poland’s Tomasz Wasilewski for his second feature Floating Skyscrapers and the Special Jury Award to Bulgaria’s Maya Vitkova for her debut Viktoria, which had its...
The second feature also picked up the Best Performance Award for leads Javier Pereira and Aura Garrido at the gala awards ceremony on Saturday evening (7).
Almost lost for words as he accepted the prize on the stage of Cluj’s National Theatre, an elated Sorogoyen (pictured) said that these were the film’s first international awards.
Stockholm previously earned best actress and new screenwriter honours in Malaga last year and a Goya this year for Pereira.
Tiff’s international jury including Chicago Film Festival director Michael Kutza, Nfts director Nik Powell and Hungarian film-maker Janos Szasz, presented their Best Directing Award to Poland’s Tomasz Wasilewski for his second feature Floating Skyscrapers and the Special Jury Award to Bulgaria’s Maya Vitkova for her debut Viktoria, which had its...
- 6/8/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
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