Aki Kaurismaki can no longer be said to be an unrecognised filmmaker in his native Finland after his award-winning The Man Without A Past became his most successful film at the local box-office ever and picked up the highest number of nominations for the local film awards: the Jussi. Best film, direction and script for Kaurismaki as well as nominations for best actor, actress, cinematography and editing.

Aku Louhimies' box-office hit Lovers & Leavers was also nominated as best film along with Kaisa Rastimo's equally popular children's film Hayflower & Quiltshoe, while the nominations for best directors went to Jari Halonen for Life Of Aleksis Kivi and Matti Ijäs for Blue Corner. Hannu Tuomainen's One Way Ticket To Mombasa also picked up a number of nominations including those for best script and music.

The Jussi awards, which are the only prizes for local Finnish films, are given out by the film organisation Filmiaura. It was founded by film critics in 1944 but today its members include film professionals and number some 250. The Jussi awards will be handed out on Jan19 in Helsinki.