The Media Foundation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland grants the Katso minuun... Award of 1500 € to a new Finnish feature or short film for children or young people. The award is intended to support Finnish films for children and young people and encourage film makers to examine Christian responsibility and values. This year the winning film was chosen by Pirkko Frank-Arkimies, who works as a producer at the Finnish Broadcasting Company and is a board member of the Church Media Foundation.
 
"The youths are now in the spotlight, the subject matter could not be more topical", Ms. Frank-Arkimies said.. "Maarit Lalli's background as a documentary director is positively visible in the film. Her protagonists are like the boys next door whose side the viewer takes during the many conflicts. The amateur actors cast as the youths reach the lives of the boys whose roles they play in a touching way. Look at me, see me, gimme some time. This is what the youths cry out for. This is the film's message. At its best Almost 18 can challenge youths, their parents and other people close to them to actually contact and interact with each other."

Almost 18 is a story of five young men standing on the threshold of adulthood and their challenging relationships with their parents. The episodic movie depicts the growth stories of young men in Helsinki both separately and as a group. The movie is tied together by the characters’ true friendship and their problematic family relations. Reaching the age of majority means both freedom to do what they want and finding their own place in the world. At the same time it brings them new responsibilities and also things unexpected.

Almost 18 is director Maarit Lalli's first feature film. Lalli wrote the film’s script with his son Henrik Mäki-Tanila, who plays one of the movie’s leading roles.

"I thank the Church's Media Foundation for the award," the director said. "The script of Almost 18 was born of problems at home, of a mother's responsibility for her child, of being grounded, of a boy's love for his parents and of work done and time spent together. The making of the film was begun at a risk with no funding in sight. It would not have been created without people close to us, a son, a mother, friends and finally strangers having faith in the subject and hoping to finish what had been begun, nor would it have been possible without the endless love that we have been able to experience during the filming. The youth and I wanted to give hope to families, and I am happy if we can succeed in it."

Television producer Pirkko Frank-Arkimies chooses the film to receive the Katso minuun... Award from the Media Foundation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Frank-Arkimies has been a member of the board of the Media Foundation since 2007. She has worked on YLE TV2’s documentaries as a journalist,  director and producer between 1976 and 2009. Pirkko Frank-Arkimies has received several national and international awards for her documentaries.