Vancouver and Seoul-based Jerome Yoo’s feature debut Mongrels (Musubi Arts) won the juried FIPRESCI Prize at the 28th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in Estonia.

The FIPRESCI Prize is present at international film festivals and festivals of particular importance. The award is designed to promote film art and to encourage new and young cinema.

French film critic and writer Bernard Besserglik, British film critic and FIPRESCI VP Rita Di Santo and Estonian film critic Ralf Sauter were the jury members.

The film, written and directed by Yoo and produced by Nach Dudsdeemaytha and Tesh Guttikonda follows a Korean family that immigrated to rural Canada in the 1990s. Mongrels is distributed by Game Theory Films.

The film stars Jae-Hyun Kim, Da-Nu Nam (To All the Boys: Always and Forever), Sein Jin, Candyce Weir (The Hammer), Jedd Sharp (Rug Burn), Morgan Derera (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) and Sangbum Kang.

Mongrels was funded by Telefilm Canada, Creative BC, the Canada Council for the Arts and Game Theory.

“Under Yoo’s skillful handling of multiple story lines, what could have been a run-of-the-mill evocation of the hardships of emigration, becomes a thoughtful meditation on the nature of grief, and in particular grief experienced in childhood,” said the jury in a statement.

Mongrels was also awarded the First Feature Competition’s Special Jury Prize for the cast.

The jury of the First Feature Competition was led by Strategic Film Marketing founder John Durie and was comprised of Daniel Green, distribution operations director, global at MUBI; Spanish writer, director and producer Carles Torras; and Estonian actor Karolin Jürise.

Mongrels had its world premiere earlier this year at the Vancouver International Film Festival, which saw Yoo take the Horizon Award for emerging Canadian director.

This year’s PÖFF ran from Nov. 8 to 24.

Photo by Jaryl Lim