At the fourth edition of the Swedish children's film festival Stockholm Film Festival Junior, Finnish production Hayflower And Quiltshoe (Heinahattu Ja Filttitossu) by Kaisa Rastimo won the award for best film.

The Stockholm Film Festival Junior, which saw a record attendance of 7,000 young visitors this year, is further evidence of the growing interest in children's films from the Nordic region.

Six of the twelve feature films that screened in competition were from the Nordic countries. Danish Pia Bovin's Wallah Be (Kald Mig Bare Aksel) opened the festival on Sunday April 6.

In addition to screening films, the Stockholm Film Festival Junior arranged a film-making competition for children, 'One Minute Of Film'.

The competition encouraged children from all over Sweden to participate with their own, one minute short films predominantly made on computers.

This year, the festival received 270 films - twice as many as last year.

Meanwhile, German Film Award-nominated films Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer and Bibi Blocksberg were among the winners at this year's 'Golden Sparrow' German Children's Film & Television Festival held in the east German towns of Gera and Erfurt.

Tomy Wigand's adaptation of the Erich Kaestner children's book Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer, which has been seen by over 1.7 million cinema-goers to date, received a Golden Sparrow as Best Feature/TV Film.

Ulrich Noethen was named Best Actor for his roles in Klassenzimmer and Hermine Huntgeburth's Bibi Blocksberg, the most successful German film last year with over 2.1 million admissions.

Around 15,000 festival-goers and more than 600 accredited professional delegates attended the festival, which was also held in Erfurt, home of Germany's Kinderkanal, for the first time in addition to the traditional venue of Gera.

A total of 94 German film and TV productions were presented in the festival's showcase from the past two years.