Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy launched a competition after operating for 20 years as a non-competitive festival. The Finnkino Prize is a nation-wide distribution contract, given to one of the ten nominees. The winner of the first Finnkino Prize is the Jordanian film "Captain Abu Raed" (dir. Aman Matalqa).

The audience competition for the Finnkino Prize is arranged in co-operation with Finnkino, the biggest distribution company in Finland. The audience voted for their favorite film from ten nominees shown at the Helsinki IFF.

"Captain Abu Raed" tells the story of an elderly airport janitor, whom the kids in his neighborhood mistake for a pilot. "Abu Raed" doesn’t correct the misunderstanding but uses the situation to tell the poor and abused kids amazing stories about the far away places, that he has never been to. "Captain Abu Raed" is the first feature film by Aman Matalqa (b. 1976).

"Captain Abu Raed" also won the Audience Award for World Cinema (dramatic section) at the Sundance Film Festival, earlier this year, and is Jordan’s choice for Oscar Nomination.

The Finnkino Prize winner was announced at the beginning of the Helsinki IFF’s Closing Film, "The Class," (dir. Laurent Cantet) and at the screening of the Surprise Film, "Rachel Getting Married" (dir. Jonathan Demme). "Captain Abu Raed " will be released theatrically by Finnkino on the 19th of December. The ten nominees for the Finnkino Prize were all first or second feature films by their director:

• Captain Abu Raed (director: Amin Matalqa, Jordan 2007)
• Love and Other Crimes (director:Stefan Arsenijevits, Serbia 2008)
• Lake Tahoe (director: Fernando Eimbcke, Mexico 2008)
• Autumn Ball (director: Veiko Öunpuu, Estonia 2007)
• Vanaja (director: Rajnesh Domalpalli, India 2006)
• Involuntary (director: Ruben Östlund, Sweden 2008)
• Me (director: Rafa Cortés, Spain 2007)
• Wonderful Town (director: Aditya Assarat, Thailand 2007)
• Better Things (director: Duane Hopkins, United Kingdom 2008)
• Tulpan (director: Sergei Dvortsevoy, Kazakhstan 2006)