Tromso International Film Festival – TIFF

TIFF is Norway’s largest film festival, and has become an important stage for both Norwegian and international films.

This year the festival celebrates its 20th anniversary, and it’s growth since the beginning in 1994 is impressive. Last year nearly 50,000 people visited the festival.

Films

The festival prides itself on offering a wide range of films from all corners of the world. In 2006 the festival showed films from over 30 different countries.

Outdoor Cinema

The festival also runs a free outdoor cinema. And although standing outside in the Arctic January cold might not sound too tempting, it is a truly magical experience.

The screen is conveniently situated in the middle of the main town square, and if you’re lucky, the northern lights will accompany your film.

The films shown at this outdoor screen are mostly short documentaries from the special “Films from the North” category as well as specially selected short films.

Awards

Several prizes are awarded at the end of each festival. There are in total 5 awards selected by different juries.

The main award is called the Aurora and comes with 75,000NOK prize money towards distribution.

There is also an award by the FICC-jury (with members of the Federation Internationale des Cine-Clubs) and FIPRESCI-jury (with members of the Federation Internationale de la Presse Cinematographique).

The ‘Tromso Palm’ is awarded to the best film in the category “Films from the North”.

Ane finally, the Norwegian Peace Film Award is given in collaboration with the Centre for Peace Studies at the University of Tromso and the Student Network for Peace, to a film focusing on war and conflict.

Getting to TIFF

The 20th Tromso International Film Festival takes place in Tromso 18-23th January 2011.

The screenings are all located in cinemas in the centre of town, so is easily combined with a short break in Tromso to see the northern lights.

Find the easiest and cheapest ways of getting to and where to stay in Tromso.

Read more about the film festival at the official home page.