Awards of the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival

Willem Dafoe, actor 

Stellan Skarsgård, actor

Paolo Sorrentino, director, screenwriter

Ray Winstone, actor

 

Given in recognition of an exceptional contribution to the art of film.

 

President of the Jury 

Sergei Loznitsa, President of the Jury (director and writer, Ukraine) 

Dragan Mićanović (actor, Serbia) 

Emanuel Pârvu (director, writer, actor, Romania) 

Ena Sendijarević (director, writer, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Netherlands) 

Tricia Tuttle (Berlin Film Festival director, SAD) 

 

WIND, TALK TO ME / VETRE, PRIČAJ SA MNOM

Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia

Director: Stefan Đorđević

Producers: Dragana Jovović, Ognjen Glavonić, Stefan Ivančić

Award in the amount of €16,000.

 

The filmmaker behind our Best Film takes a formally bold and inquisitive approach to his very personal subject, working with his collaborators to combine elements of fiction and documentary into a film of beguiling melancholy and delicate beauty. It is our please to present the HEART OF SARAJEVO to the producers and director of WIND, TALK TO ME.

 

Ivana Mladenović, SORELLA DI CLAUSURA

Romania, Serbia, Italy, Spain

Award in the amount of €10,000 is sponsored by the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina in cooperation with UNESCO.

 

The punk spirit is never far away in this skilfully directed film, which flows like a dostojevskean river, stacking failure on failure, to finally arrive at a romantic comedy, but without the romance. The best director award goes to Ivana Mladenović, SORELLA DI CLAUSURA.

 

FANTASY ensemble - Sarah al Saleh, Alina Juhart, Mia Skrbinac, Mina Milovanović

Slovenia, North Macedonia

Award in the amount of €2,500.

 

In a film exploring the distances between how we understand ourselves and how others perceive us, our ensemble of talented actresses brought great charisma and authenticity to their roles. We proudly present the Best Actress Award to the ensemble quartet at the heart of FANTASY.

 

Andrija Kuzmanović, YUGO FLORIDA

Serbia, Bulgaria, France, Croatia, Montenegro

Award in the amount of €2,500.

 

Our Best Actor brings depth and complexity to a performance of deceptive simplicity, as his character struggles to unlearn a lifetime of avoiding emotional closeness. Our Best Actor Award goes to Andrija Kuzmanović.

 

Blake Levin (producer, USA) 

Cíntia Gil (film curator, Portugal) 

Veton Nurkollari (artistic director of DokuFest and film curator, Kosovo*) 

 

OUR TIME WILL COME / UNSERE ZEIT WIRD KOMMEN

Austria

Director: Ivette Löcker

Award in the amount of €4,000 is sponsored by the Government of Switzerland.

 

The Heart of Sarajevo award for best documentary feature goes to a film that combines the beauty and the challenges of creating togetherness, with the generosity and rigour of making films in the intimacy of lives being lived. It is a film that builds a cinematic time and space for the complexities of love and the politics of coexistence, valuing the richness that each person may bring to our common spaces.

 

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM 

THE MAN’S LAND / KACEBIS MITSA

Georgia, Hungary

Director: Mariam Bakacho Khatchvani

Award in the amount of €2,000.

 

To a film that brings forward and challenges a centuries old custom. With unobtrusive, yet close and intimate camera work, and with precise editing, we are presented a film that speaks volumes about injustice and integrity. The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Short Documentary goes to Mariam Bakacho Khatchvani for her film The Men’s Land.

 

IN HELL WITH IVO

Bulgaria, United States

Director: Kristina Nikolova

Award in the amount of €2,500.

 

For the filmmaker’s deft ability to let her iconoclast subject’s charisma and talent erupt on screen, shaping a narrative of Ivo’s performances that push audiences into discomfort with honesty, compassion, and connection, the Special Jury Prize for Documentary goes to ‘In Hell With Ivo’ from director Kristina Nikolova.

 

I BELIEVE THE PORTRAIT SAVED ME / MUA BESOJ MË SHPËTOJ PORTRETI

Kosovo*, Netherlands

Director: Alban Muja

 

To a formally daring film that uses re-enactment to tell a story of survival during the war, as well as the power of art, the jury is delighted to give a special mention to I Believe the Portrait Saved Me by Alban Muja.

 

Teresa Cavina (festival programmer and script doctor, Italy) 

Cem Demirer (cinematographer and director, Türkiye) 

Nebojša Slijepčević (director and writer, Croatia)

 

WINTER IN MARCH / LUMI SAADAB MEID

Armenia, Estonia, France, Belgium

Director: Natalia Mirzoyan

AN OSCAR® QUALIFYING FILM

Award in the amount of €2,500.

 

The Heart of Sarajevo goes to the film done with exceptional precision and amazing creativity. It's an authentic story of inner conflict that comes from facing your country falling into the moral abyss. The name of the film is WINTER IN MARCH directed by Natalia Mirzoyan.

 

ERASERHEAD IN A KNITTED SHOPPING BAG

Bulgaria

Director: Lili Koss 

The special mention goes to the playful film that is set against the backdrop of the Bulgarian rough 90’s, where children, left to grow up by themselves, invent their own world.

The narrative subtly emerges from witty smart and believable human interactions, directed with youthful energy and supported by vivid cinematography. The name of the film is ERASERHEAD IN A KNITTED SHOPPING BAG directed by Lili Koss.

 

Miroslav Mandić (director and writer, Bosnia and Herzegovina) 

Nađa Petrović (writer, screenwriter and director, Serbia) 

Yorgos Tsourgiannis (producer, Greece) 

 

TARIK

Serbia

Director: Adem Tutić

Award in the amount of €1,000 is sponsored by the Regional Cooperation Council.

 

A teenage boy floats through the spaces that define his youth, thanks to a visual approach dominated by the fuzzy depth of field, supported by intense acting and crisp dialogues. It is not a dreamy levitation, but the hardship caused by toxic masculinity of his peers and his family, primarily by his sensitive soul. For the deliberate aesthetics that employ remarkably sparse means and thus aptly convey important narrative issues, for the details that are thoroughly considered and subtly woven into the narrative, the award goes to TARIK directed by Adem Tutić.

 

Anna Croneman (producer and CEO of the Swedish Film Institute, Sweden) 

Ivan Marinović (director, writer and producer, Montenegro) 

Norika Sefa (director and writer, Kosovo*)

 

GOD WILL NOT HELP / BOG NEĆE POMOĆI

Croatia, Italy, Romania, Greece, France

Director: Hana Jušić

Award in the amount of €7,500 sponsored by Mastercard.

 

The award goes to - an intense mystery, set in isolation, that flirts with genre while creating something wholly on its own. Grounded in a strong sense of place, powerful performances speak volumes without excess dialogue in an atmosphere both familiar and uncanny. Its narrative challenges our assumptions and in doing so, it ultimately confronts us with feelings of not belonging.

 

Anja Jokić (youth policy specialist, Serbia)

Eréndira Núñez Larios (producer, Mexico) 

Milan Stojanović (producent, Serbia)

 

DJ AHMET

North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia

Director: Georgi M. Unkovski

Award in the amount of €7,500 sponsored by the Council of Europe.

The Special Award Youth Perspectives goes to a film about young people challenging their community and tradition - a lighthearted and humorous, but highly moving story, enriched with endearing and lively performances by the young actors and colorful cinematography, which we believe has the potential to reach audiences, especially the young ones, around the world. For giving voice to youth from small community, this award goes to the producers and the director of the film DJ AHMET.

 

 

Gregor Božič (director, cinematographer, Slovenia) 

Kasia Karwan (film consultant, Poland) 

Dominique Welinski (producer and film consultant, France)

 

THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD

Greece, United States

Director: Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis

The winner receives candidacy for the European Film Academy's Best Short Film Award.

 

Alexander Omar Lang (film curator and programmer, Germany) 

Sylvie Da Rocha (artistic director, Cinema Zola, Portugal) 

Diego Ginartes Rodríguez (film curator, programmer and cultural producer, Spain)

 

WHITE SNAIL

Austria, Germany

Director: Elsa Kresmer, Levin Peter

 

The International Confederation of Art Cinemas (CICAE) bestows this award on a film from the Competition Programme – Feature Film. The winning film receives CICAE support for distribution, exhibition, and audience outreach, through a network of 3,000 cinemas.

 

Srdjan Kurpjel (composer and sound editor, Bosnia and Herzegovina) 

Alfonso Rivera (film journalist and critic, Spain)

 

DJ AHMET

North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia

Director: Georgi M. Unkovski

 

The prize is awarded by the Cineuropa portal, the site dedicated to the European cinema and film professionals, and is given to a fil that besides having indisputable artistic qualities also promotes the idea of European dialogue and integration. The value of this award is €5,000. 

List of Partners' Awards HERE

List of 23nd CineLink Industry Days Awards HERE