Johanna Vuoksenmaa's popular comedy drama Upswing (Nousukausi) topped the list of nominations for the Finnish film organisation Filmiaura's coveted Jussi awards.

Upswing's ten nominations include best film, best director, best actor/actress, script and music. Last year's most popular film at the box-office, Aleksi Makela's Bad Boys - A True Story, (with 615,000 admissions - ahead of The Two Towers with 466,000 admissions) was also nominated in five categories including best film, director and actress (Elsa Saisio).

The other two nomination favourites were Perttu Leppa's Pearls And Pigs (Helmia ja sikoja) and Jarmo Lampela's Eila, while there were none for Timo Koivusalo's historical biopic Sibelius.

The Jussi awards, which are the only prizes for local Finnish films, have been handed out since 1944, when Filmiaura was founded by local film critics. Today the organisation has some 250 members. The award ceremony is held on Feb 1 in Helsinki.