Maarja Johanna Mägi earned this year’s Bruno O’Ya Scholarship for Young Actor.

The laureate of one thousand euros scholarship was announced at PÖFF’s opening ceremony, where Mägi was unfortunately unable to attend - at the same time she had a performance at the Vanemuine Theater.

In a pre-recorded video the 26-year-old actress, who is best known for the "Melchior the Apothecary" film trilogy, thanked those who were present and said the following: "This scholarship is thankworthy: although Bruno Oja was such a great actor, few young people know him - I also heard about him for the first time when Pääru Oja got this scholarship. At first, I thought that such a great name joke was made: Pääru Oja and Bruno O'Ya. But now I already know - luckily!"

For the first time a 5-day prize trip to Kraków comes with the scholarship. In 1979 Bruno O'Ya played there at the Old Theater as an Indian chief in Krzysztof Zanussi's play "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

The travel package, discovering the footsteps of the famous Estonian, includes visiting Kraków's theaters, the Tadeusz Kantor Center Cricoteka and museums related to film and theater. The laureate has the opportunity to stay at the Francuski hotel, where Bruno O'Ya also stayed, and read the complaint book of that time, where visitors complain about the Estonian's saxophone playing at night.
This fascinating trip is organized by the Polish Embassy in Tallinn.

"I'm really looking forward to it," said the laureate in his video.

Maarja Johanna Mägi graduated Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2020 and works at the Vanemuine Theater. She made her film debut in Elmo Nüganen's film trilogy "Melchior the Apothecary", winning the EFTA’s Best Actress Award for her role as Keterlyn. She can currently be seen in the comedy "Vigased pruudid" and next year in Rain Tolgi and Andres Maimik's film "Aurora".

The Bruno O'Ya foundation for helping Estonian young actors has been operating at PÖFF for the tenth year already. According to O'Ya's last will, the purpose of the foundation is to support the self-development of young actors.

Bruno O'Ya, who died in 2002, is internationally one of the most known Estonian actors. He has acted in more than 50 films, the most famous of which is the Lithuanian Vytautas Žalakevičius film „Nobody Wanted to Die” (in 1967 he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR). From the end of the 1960s, O´Ya lived and worked mainly in Poland.

O'Ya would have turned 90 this year.

Read more about the Bruno O´Ya scholarship HERE.