Nordic Council Film Prize 2017 to Little Wing

The DKK 350,000 prize and statuette were presented to Selma Vilhunen, Kaarle Aho and Kai Nordberg by last year’s winner, Thomas Robsahm, at the award ceremony in Finlandia Hall, Helsinki.

The Adjudication Committee wrote:

In Little Wing Selma Vilhunen manages to capture big and fundamental emotions using very small gestures, and proves that she has a sensibility as a director and screenwriter beyond the ordinary. She cleverly plays with how girls and young women are often treated on film, and every time the audience senses and expects a threat to the main character Varpu, Vilhunen lets her – both literally and figuratively – steer away from the clichés. Soft and capable, Varpu roams a world where the characters are allowed to be real people who are both good and bad, and where their surroundings are simply a setting but never a theme. In Little Wing the jury found moments of pure energy and cinematic gold, and we want to see more.