Film festival names BOF, One World winners

A corporate film by BIS Inc., Tokyo, and a documentary from Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Cologne, Germany, have won Best of Festival-Grand Prix in the 2011 U.S. Film & Video Festival. The One World award went to a documentary on the Baltic Sea, which is threatened by pollution, submitted by Pohjantahti-Elokuva, Helsinki, Finland.

Corporate winner
Selected as Best of Festival-Corporate was “Music” from BIS Inc. Judges’ comments on the production said it was “very cleverly conceived and brilliantly executed.” The work was done for Honda and captured the various sounds of Honda products -- motorcycles, cars, robots, F1 machines, jet planes – around the globe.

The concept of the video was to show how the sounds of Honda mix with the sounds of daily life to create a melody, finally turning into a glorious chorus from Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony.” 

Documentary winner
Capturing Best of Festival-Documentary was “The Blood of the Rose” created and entered by Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) and produced by Henry Singer. The production company was Dragonfly Film and Television Productions Ltd., London.

The film tells the story of the extraordinary life and brutal death of filmmaker-turned-conservationist Joan Root, and of her campaign to save her beloved Lake Naivasha in Kenya. “Blood of the Rose” is both a biopic and a classic whodunit that opens a window onto the simmering tensions in an Africa still emerging from colonialism and anxious to take its place in the global economy.

It is the Kenyan rose, which is exported by the millions from Naivasha to the rest of the world, that has brought – not just jobs and foreign exchange earnings – but the environmental destruction that Root worked so hard to stop and which may have ultimately cost Root her life. 

Judges described the film as “a very interesting story with high drama and successful plans. Very cinematographic.”

One World Award
BSAS 2010 “New Standard for Environmental Action,” which won the Best of Festival-One World Award, addresses the issue raised in February 2010 when heads of states and businesses of the Baltic Sea area gathered in Finland at the Baltic Sea Action Summit. The gathering was aimed at saving one of the world's most polluted seas.

The One World Award is sponsored and selected by the International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers (IQ), Zurich, Switzerland. IQ honors a work that best fosters world understanding.

“When the International Quorum of Motion Pictures Producers established the One World award, we had a very simple yet powerful objective: honor the film that used the power of the medium to promote goodwill and cooperation,” said Vern Oakley, IQ president.  “We wanted to embrace the filmmakers and their film for recognizing you can change the world by telling the stories that inspire mankind to its noblest purpose.”

Judges hailed the film as “persuasive with a well-expressed theme and easy to understand.” The film was submitted by Pohjantahti-Elokuva, Helsinki, Finland. The client was Baltic, Helsinki.

The film was directed by Pami Teirikari, edited by Teemu Soikkeli and the music for the film was composed by Lasse Enersen. The script was written by Jyrki Poutanen and Timo Silvennoinen. Pohjantähti-Elokuva and marketing agency Taivas produced the award winning film and made it pro bono for the Baltic Sea Action Group, represented by Ilkka Herlin, Saara Kankaanrinta and Anna Kotsalo-Mustonen. The entrant is Pohjantahti-Elokuva, Helsinki, Finland.

The film is part of the Save the Baltic Sea campaign.

More than 1,000 entries were received from 25 countries. Entrants from 13 countries took 91 awards in the US International Film & Video Festival.

Clips from the winners and nominees and other winners in the festival can be viewed at www.filmfestawards.com. The U.S. International Film & Video Festival was founded in 1967.

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