"This is the first Virgin Maali Award-winning documentary since 2011. Film journalists have praised Carlos Lesmes for his bold and empathic approach to a complex social issue, through the exceptionally personal story of one family," Andrei Liimets, chairman of the Estonian Film Journalists Association said.

Rasmus Merivoo's "Kratt", German Golubi's "My Dear Corpses", Ivar Murd's "u.Q." and Peeter Simm's "On the Water" were also in the hunt for the award.

Last year, Veiko Õunpuu's "The Last Ones" won the award. The winner will also be recognized by Olympic Casino with a €2,500 prize.

Maria Ulfsak-Sheripova was recognized as the film journalist of the year. "We highlight Maria Ulfsak-Šeripova for her outstanding work as a film editor at Eesti Ekspress. In addition, we want to highlight Sten-Kristian Saluveer who has thoroughly discussed the future of Estonian film and cinema," Liimets said.

In April, the award-winning film of the year went to the Oscar-winning drama "Nomadic Land", which is distributed by Hea Film.

The top ten films of the year were:

1. "Nomadic Land" (directed by Chloe Zhao, distributed by Good Film)

2. "Father" (directed by Florian Zeller, distributor of Best Film)

3. "Dune" (directed by Denis Villeneuve, distributor of ACME Film)

4. "Coupe No. 6" (directed by Juho Kuosmanen, distributed by Best Film)

5. "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn" (directed by Radu Jude, distributed by Must Käsi)

6. "Gunda" (directed by Viktor Kossakovski, distributed by Must Käsi)

7. "The Worst Person in the World" (directed by Joachim Trier, distributed by Estinfilm)

8. "Petrovid's flu" (directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, distributed by the Must Käsi)

9. "Promising Young Woman" (directed by Emerald Fennell, distributor of VLG Film)

10. "Conference" (directed by Ivan I. Tverdovski, distributed by Must Käsi)

The Virgin Maalu, awarded for the 29th time this year, is the longest-running film award in Estonia.

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