Director Ričardas Marcinkus' success in Amsterdam: "Final Destination" is voted the best student film

R. Marcinkus documentary “Final Destination” has won the Best Student Film Award at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, IDFA. When awarding the prize, international jury congratulated the director and his crew on an incredibly powerful and humane film. A total of 15 documentaries from around the world took part in the competition program for Student Documentary.

Two days before the announcement of the winners, “Final Destination” and two more films had been selected as the best in the program and could continue to compete for the main prize. R. Marcinkus' rivals were  Tomasz Sliwinski from ("Our Curse"), and Germans Tuna Kaptan and Felicitas Sonvilla ("Two at the Border"). Ultimately, success was with the Lithuanian author. His film was voted the best student work. The director received cash prize of 2.5 thousand  euro.

The jury members praised the Lithuanian film.  They noted that R. Marcinkus took on a hard task - filming a broken and degrading man - but expertly coped with it. The jury acknowledged the long filming process and an honest relationship, which started between the filmmaker and the subject.

International jury this year consisted of Hussain Currimbhoy, president of the jury, director of programming of the Sheffield Doc/Fest, Peter Lataster, filmmaker, cinematographer and teacher from the , and Mon Mon Myat, journalist, organizer of the Human Dignity Human Rights International Film Festival.

National premiere of the film “Final Destination” took place at the recent European Film Forum Scanorama.

Trailer of the film “Final Destination”: http://youtu.be/0OwOrJwP5kk