“Vortex”, a Film Directed by Gytis Lukšas, Won Two Main Prizes of the Competition Programme at the Baltic Festival in Tallinn

Vortex, a feature film directed by Gytis Lukšas, today won the best film prize at the 13^th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

The work of Viktoras Radzevičius won the best cinematography award in the competition programme of feature films made in three Baltic States . This special prize (1,000 Euros) for the best cameraman in the Baltic feature film competition category was founded by the Lithuanian-Latvian company Cinevera LV, which rents and serves lighting and filming equipment in and abroad. 

This programme also included a film by Ignas Miškinis, Low Lights. Six feature films from and one film from also participated in the Baltic Film competition programme.

Vortex participated in the traditional film fair of this festival, Baltic Event, in Tallinn . The largest film fair in the Baltic region was organised for the fifth time this year.

On December 11 – 12 Vortex will participate in Lithuanian Film Days at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York . MoMa is among the most influential modern art museums in the world.

Currently, Vortex  represents among the Academy Awards nominations in the best foreign language film category 2009. The film has been officially invited to the Palm Springs International Film Festival (USA). The Palm Springs Festival that will take place on January 5 – 18 in 2010 has selected Vortex  from 65 official foreign films nominated for the best foreign language film award together with several other official films at the 82^th Oscar awards. This year a special international jury of film critics will present and award the prestigious Prix FIPRESCI to one of the official foreign language film nominees for the Academy Awards. This is a particularly important festival, recognised in the . The Palm Springs International Film Festival has a great reputation as a good place to promote recent films and present new filmmakers. The fact that the festival takes place near Los Angeles guarantees a large participation of distributors, sales agents and film production representatives. The festival provides a harmonious combination of the best aspects of a film fair and a festival for those who love good cinema.

Vortex  has been successfully screened also during other international festivals. Just three months after the premiere, the film was already screened during The Montreal World Film Festival (Class A), The Tamil Nadu Festival in , the Baltic Film Festival Berlin and Cairo International Film Festival (Class A).

Vortex, a feature film directed by Gytis Lukšas, is an adaptation of a novel of the same title by a National Culture and Art Award laureate Romualdas Granauskas.

Vortex  is a dramatic, but also emotionally very colourful, film about human destiny, about a man broken by the Soviet system whose fate has remained unnoticed. In order to preserve the uniqueness and authenticity of the time, actors speak in Lithuanian and Russian in the film. Two women among three main characters, Klava and Mashka, have been performed by Russian speaking actresses from the , Jevgenija Verenica and Oksana Borbat. The main character Juozapas Gaučys is a debut work of a Lithuanian actor Giedrius Kiela.

Actors starring in this film have been awarded Sidabrinė gervė awards (Silver Crane): Oksana Borbat as the best actress, Vladimiras Jefremovas and Jūratė Onaitytė as the best supporting actors.