Finland's most internationally acclaimed director was the top winner of the local Jussi film awards last Sunday with his French speaking Le Havre that collected six awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
Le Havre's other awards went to the director's regular Elina Salo who picked up a Best Supporting Actress - on top of her Lifetime Achievement award - Timo Salminen for his cinematography and Timo Linnasalo for the editing.
Kaurismäki's poetic immigration tale missed out on the Oscars nominations but is a front runner for the French annual Césars film awards, with nominations in the Best Film, Best Director and Best Production Design categories. The film was the second biggest Finnish hit of 2011.
The second biggest Jussi winner was Sakari Kirjavainen's war movie Silence that received four statuettes for Best Actor (Joonas Saartamo), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Ilkka Heiskanen), Best Music (Timo Hietala) and Best Sound Design (Olli Huhtanen and Pietari Koskinen). Another period film, Hella W by Juha Wuolijoki was awarded for Anu Pirilä's Costume Design and Kari Kankaanpää's Set Design. The Nordic Council Film Prize's Finnish nominee The Good Son received a Jussi for Best Actress (Elina Knihtilä), the Best Documentary award went to Forever Yours by Mia Halme and the Audience award to Taru Mäkelä's The Storage, currently number three in Finland.
Nordisk Film & TV Fond supported Le Havre, Silence and Hella W, collecting 12 out of 15 Jussi awards.