By Ogova Ondego
Published February 8, 2015
MOTHER, I LOVE YOU!, a film directed by Janis Nords of Latvia has won the Best European Children’s Film 2015.
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The award was given out in a ceremony during the Children’s Film Community Party (Treffen der Kinderfilmszene) in the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), at the Homebase Lounge in the German political capital, Berlin, on 07.02.15.
The organisers of the award, European Children’s Film Association (ECFA), said more than 80 members of the association who are ‘interested in high quality films for children and young people’–filmmakers, producers, promoters, distributors, exhibitors, TV-programmers, festival organisers and film educators–had cast their vote for the award that, though not with any cash money prize connected to it, is nevertheless prestigious as it is given “exclusively by professionals in the field of European children’s film.”
ECFA says MOTHER, I LOVE YOU! had its world premiere in the Generation section of Berlinale in 2013 and went on to be awarded at various festivals around the world.
A Press Release from ECFA says the association, in 2014, “organized the fourth edition of the ECFA Award, the election of the Best European Children’s Film of the Year. Throughout the year nine children’s film festivals (from St Quentin, France to Pyrgos, Greece) hosted an ECFA Award jury, adding one title to ECFA’s shortlist. The 9 shortlisted films competed for the final ECFA Award.”
ECFA, that was founded in 1988 and now has members in 30 European and non-European countries, projects itself as “an association for professionals and organizations operating within the field of quality films for children and youth. It aims at securing children’s access to the best possible film culture and to increase an awareness of the need for good media politics in the different European countries.”
Audiovisual media in general and cinema in particular, ECFA says, are a vehicle for artistic communication and for cultural transmission.”
ECFA says it “is convinced that European films for children and young people could not only succeed, but could also find a profitable audience. Children and young people are not only the future of our society, but also an important part of it here and now, with enormous emotional, cultural and of course material needs.”
