“Manny”, an Indian-Latvian co-production, came second out of 120 films in the competition, and won best operator, best score, and best supporting actor categories.
The festival jury comprised representatives of both the cinema industry and various fields of science, including “Star Trek” original screenwriter David Gerrold, director and producer Robert Meyer Burnett and communications expert for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Thaddeus Cesari.
“The feeling that your work is appreciated and rewarded both by people representing the film industry and by scientists who work with artificial intelligence in reality is wonderful, especially when I'm not experienced with science fiction films,” said director Dace Pūce.
The science-fiction thriller “Manny” tells the story of an Indian woman who comes to Latvia to visit a friend and work on an autobiographical novel. Her nature reveals itself through the prisms of three relationships – imaginative, real and virtual. She becomes a prisoner of artificial intelligence and begins a fight for her freedom.
The Latvian co-producer of the film “Manny” is “Marana Productions” and it was fully shot in Latvia. For Latvian viewers, the film “Manny” could be available at the end of 2021.
