Sami van Ingen’s Flame awarded with the Grand Prix at Split Film Festival

Sami van Ingen’s Flame (2018) was awarded with the Grand Prix in the short film competition of Split Film Festival, held from October 4–12 in Croatia.

The Jury states:

“A celebration of a fortunate accident – discovery of a nitrate reel of a supposedly lost Finish film from the 1930s. But it is not only that: it is also a whole new show! Digital intervention is used to heal damaged continuity and to re-create the narration with new accents. Combination of filmmaking techniques from different eras creates a delightful cinematic experience, complexly built but light in its flow, and fresh despite the fact that it is grounded on an old and damaged source.”

Flame is a fractured melodrama, based on damaged frames from the last minutes of the only remaining nitrate reel of the lost feature film Silja – Fallen Asleep When Young (1937) directed by Teuvo Tulio. All screening prints and the negative of the film were destroyed in a 1959 studio fire. A sequence from the middle of the film was found at La Cinémathèque Française in Paris in 2015.

Sami van Ingen is a veteran in alternative Finnish film, who has worked as an artist, lecturer and curator since the late 1980s. He lives and works in Helsinki. Van Ingen finished his doctoral studies in the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2012. He often uses random or found materials in his works. His works have been seen in many national and international exhibitions and festivals over the years, including Tbilisi Triennial (2012), Kunsthalle Helsinki (2005) and Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, Finland (2002).

Flame has previously won the Videorama Award for the Best Experimental Film at Timishort Film Festival, Romania, the Best Film by Audience Jury Award at Fronteira International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, Brasil, a honorary mention at Art Film Fest, Košice, Slovakia, and a diploma of merit in the national competition of Tampere Film Festival. It has been screened at several international film festivals, including Rotterdam, Edinburg, Karlovy Vary, and London BFI Film Festival.


Split Film Festival, October 4–12 2018, Croatia

More information: Split FF


AV-ARKKI HAS PROMOTED AND DISTRIBUTED FINNISH MEDIA ART SINCE 1989. AV-ARKKI’S PROMOTIONAL EFFORTS HAVE MADE THE ARTISTS’ PARTICIPATION IN THIS EVENT POSSIBLE.