Mika Taanila is this year’s laureate of the Underground Spirit Award at Palić European Film Festival, held from July 20–26, 2024 in Palić, Serbia. The Underground Spirit Award is awarded for outstanding work in the field of independent film and unique authorial poetics built outside the mainstream of the film industry.

The festival will also present two screenings of Taanila’s works: the first one features Patent Nr. 314805 (2021), A Physical Ring (2001), Optical Sound (2006), Future Is Not What It Used To Be (2002) and The World (2017) and the second one his most recent work Failed Emptiness (2024), which premiered at IFFR this year.

Mika Taanila (s. 1965) is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland. He works with documentaries, experimental film and visual arts. Human engineering, utopias, failures and man-machines are recurring themes in his films and installations. Taanila’s works have been shown at major international group shows, such as Venice Biennale (Nordic Pavilion 2017), Aichi Triennale (2013), dOCUMENTA (2012), Shanghai Biennale (2006), Berlin Biennale (2004), Manifesta (2002) and Istanbul Biennial (2001). Solo shows include the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki (2013–14), Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2013), TENT, Rotterdam (2013) and Galleria Heino, Helsinki (2010). Taanila’s short films have been screened altogether at more than 300 international film festivals and special events. In 2015, Taanila was awarded with the prestigious Ars Fennica Award, the biggest Finnish art award.

Palić European Film Festival
July 20–26, 2024
Palić, Serbia

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