This year, 17 teams took part in this year’s Kaader Youth Film Festival’s film sprint and 18 teams in the main Kaader festival. The film sprint took place in Rapla Vesiroos and the young people had to finish their film in three hours. The three best films were selected from 17 teams and screened together with the other films on the 22nd edition of the festival. The three shortlisted films were selected and screened alongside the other films in a live screening of Kaadri in the Rapla cinema hall.
In the 24-hour round, one film was not completed in time, but it was still an experience for the makers, especially as the team was put together on the spot from young people from different cities. This year’s short films were full of chases and crime, absurdity and parody, but there were also deeper, more thought-provoking films. With the evening’s host, Patrick Soit, it turned out that several teams had an idea and background music beforehand, while in some cases the script was thought up on the spot.
This year’s films were judged by a jury made up of filmmaker Ott Tiigirand, screenwriter and director Raigo Saariste, best cinematographer winner Madis Reimund and the man who knows Kaadri inside out – Valter Uusberg. Speaking before the jury handed out the awards, Mr Uusberg said: “The quality of the Kaadr programme has been rising over the years, and maybe that’s due to the presence of mature filmmakers. “It is a youth film festival, but being young is a blurry transition from middle to higher,” said Uusberg.
The Grand Prix and the title of the audience’s favourite went to the team from the Kohtla-Järve gymnasium in Ida Virumaa. Their film “There and Back” stars two young people, Maria (Liis Kauber) and Daniil (Daniel Kabantšuk), who meet on a bench at Rapla railway station. Daniil is on his way home from Berlin, while Maria, on the other hand, is on her way from Estonia to Berlin, fed up with life here. You can watch and listen to how the young people came up with the idea to make a short film about integration issues in the Raplamaa Sõnumite podcast. In the studio, Liis Kauber and Maria Vladimirova said they were convinced they wouldn’t win any awards, so two major titles and high praise from the jury for both their actors and visuals came as an unexpected surprise.
In the junior category, the Grand Prix was awarded to the film “Two-Facedness”, which Uusberg said had a universal theme.
“In our relationships we are double-minded in a hidden way, and when the message comes that we can let ourselves go, very interesting things can happen,” said Uusberg.
The Filmsprint prize went to the film “The Life of an Estonian from Birth to Death”.
Uusberg said they appreciated the witty component and the young makers may not have realised it themselves, but they had captured the absurdity of life and managed to show it in a very imaginative way.
The jury’s special prize went to the film “Boy in the Clouds”, which stood out for its absurd task – to make an animation in 24 hours, and in a situation where some of the filmmakers did not speak Estonian.
For the Best Visual Award, the jury had a lot to argue about, but the choice went to the film by the film society Arhailisemad. “We looked at the overall picture and had to admit, as men, that this kind of male love without the gay undertones – no one really dares to talk about it, let alone depict it. The visual makes our feelings work without the story, without the text, and that’s what this film did. But what is special is that Frame 2022 is a man’s face. Great characters, great characters, suitable for all walks of life, from the coarser to the more highbrow professions. And to watch such a black and white, well-drawn man at such a beautiful length, against such beautiful music, is simply a joy,” said Uusberg.
Speaking ahead of the Best Actress announcement, Saariste said that sometimes a picture can say more than a thousand words, and the film “Outlaw” had done the trick. Uusberg added that a film’s true power is revealed when it is calm and static. In selecting the film with the best male lead, the jury found integrity in the film “Viljandi mnt 69”, which represented a man’s frustration, body issues and also more lyrical problems.
In total, ten prizes were awarded. Hoog, the scooter rental company that sponsored the shoot, gave out a special prize of €100 in Hoog credit for the film “Raipeküla Clown 2”, because where else is fast movement needed than for a killer clown on the run. The Film Society Archaic, which turned ten this year, awarded a Peace Prize on this occasion, and it went to the film “Outlaw”.
