This year the Vilnius Film Festival combined two traditional main competition programmes New Europe – New Names and Baltic Gaze into the new European Debut competition, focusing on filmmakers from all over Europe.

It was also the first time that FIPRESCI gave their prize at Kino Pavasaris. The award went to Robert Schwentke’s World War II drama The Captain.

Jurgis Matulevičius’s historical drama Isaac was one of the winning in-development projects at Meeting Point – Vilnius industry screenings. Excerpts of this film together with Annagret Sachse’s Russia Today and Kristians Riekstins‘s Eva will be shown during Cannes industry screenings this May.

Marija Stonytė’s coming-of-age story Gentle Warriors and Audrius Mickevičius‘s Exemplary Behaviour won special postproduction and promotion prizes.

This year, Kino Pavasaris screened 112 feature films and 56 short films, including 12 Lithuanian film premieres. The festival also hosted Meeting Point Vilnius, the film industry networking event designed to promote the Baltic film industry.

The 23rd Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris took place from 15 to 29 March 2018 in 11 Lithuanian cities: Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Alytus, Marijampolė, Utena, Gargždai, Anykščiai and Varėna. Kino Pavasaris counted 115,000 cinemagoers.

FULL LIST OF WINNERS:

European Debut Competition:

Best Film: Winter Brothers/ Vinterbrødre (Denmark, Iceland)
Directed by Hlynur Pálmason

Best Director: Bertrando Mandico for The Wild Boys/ Les garçons sauvages (France)                                                                                       

Best Actress: Darya Zhovner for Closeness / Tesnota (Russia)
Directed by Kantemir Balagov                                                                                                             

Best Actor: Elliott Crosset Hove for Winter Brothers (Denmark, Iceland)
Directed by Hlynur Pálmason

The FIPRESCI Award: The Captain / Der Hauptmann (Germany, France, Poland, Portugal) 
Directed by Robert Schwentke
Produced by Filmgalerie 451, Alfama Films, Opus Film, Facing East, Hands-on Producers

Cineuropa Prize: Ravens / Korparna (Sweden)
Directed by Jens Assur

Short Film Competition:

Best Short Film: Pirtis / By The Pool (Lithuania)
Directed by Laurynas Bareiša      

Special Mention: Little Hands / Les Petites Mains (Belgium, France)
Directed by Rémi Allier

Student Film Awards:

Best Student Film: Mono No Aware (Lithuania)
Directed by Emilija Juzeliūnaitė

Perspective Student Director: Titas Laucius for Snake / Gyvatė (Lithuania)

Special Mention: Vytis (Lithuania)
Directed by Jevgenij Tichonov

Audience Awards:

Audience Award – Best Feature Film:
Loving Vincent
Directed by Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
Produced by Breakthru Films, Trademark Films
Supported by the Polish Film Institute, CETA, Odra Film, Silver Reel, Cinema and Management Group, European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016, MEDIA  

Audience Award – Best Lithuanian Feature Film:
100 metų kartu / 100 Years together
Directed by Edita Kabaraitė
Produced by ARTBOX

Audience Award – Best Short Film: Mother / Madre (Spain)
Directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen

Best Lithuanian Actress: Eglė Mikulionytė for Stebuklas/ Miracle (Lithuania, Bulgaria)
Directed by Eglė Vertelytė
Produced by iN SCRiPT
Coproduced Geopoly, Studio Postprodukcyjne ORKA
Supported by the Lithuanian Film Centre, the Bulgarian National Film Center, Eurimages, Creative Europe Programme of the European Union

Best Lithuanian Actor: Valentin Novopolskij for Gyvatė / Snake (Lithuania)
Directed by Titas Laucius
Produced by Afterschool

MEETING POINT – VILNIUS INDUSTRY SCREENING WINNERS

20 minutes of each of the following three film projects will be screened at the Cannes Marché du Film industry screenings:

Isaak / Izaokas (Lithuania)
Directed by Jurgis Matulevičius

Russia Today (Germany, Russia)
Directed by Annagret Sachse

Eva (Latvia)
Directed by Kristians Riekstins

Sound and Video Postproduction Prize (established by Vilnius Film Cluster together with Madstone and Roofsound:
Gentle Warriors / Švelnūs kariai (Lithuania)
Directed by Marija Stonytė
Produced by Moonmakers
Coproduced by Vesilind

Digital Storage and Promotion Prize (awarded by Baltic View and Noir Lumiere):
Exemplary Behavior / Pavyzdinas elgesys (Lithuania)
Directed by Audrius Mickevičius

Best Lithuanian Film Project Pitch (awarded by AVAKA):
Gentle Warriors / Švelnūs kariai (Lithuania)
Directed by Marija Stonytė