The 18th Leskovac International Film Directing Festival will be held from October 14th to 18th. This year’s winner of the “Impression of Goran Paskaljević” award is director Igor Bezinović.
Igor Bezinović had this to say on the occassion: “From my first steps in film, I tried to base my work on film tradition, but also on finding new procedures for directing films. Given that the “Imprint of Goran Paskaljević” award is given to authors with an authentic style, I am glad that LIFFE perceives my work as authentic. I believe that authenticity is one of the nicest compliments that filmmakers can receive as a description of their work.”
The “Goran Paskaljevic Imprint” award was established at the Leskovac International Festival of Film Directing last year and is awarded to film artists whose professional work, gift and ethics and international recognition are in harmony with the life and work of the celebrated director. The prize is awarded by LIFFE and Kristina Paskaljević, Goran Paskaljević’s wife, and consists of a monetary portion and a statuette.
The theme of this year’s contest for the statuette “Goran Paskaljević’s print” was his first feature film The Beach Guard in Winter. The Artistic Council of the Association of Painters and Painting Lovers “Kornjača” and Kristina Paskaljević chose the work of a young sculptor from Belgrade, a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Marko Martić. The young artist points out: “When creating the statuette, I relied on the atmosphere and emotion of Goran Paskaljević’s he Beach Guard in Winter. For me, that film is a feeling of silence, space and time in which a person faces himself. The main character, with his quiet presence and unobtrusive strength, became my guide in finding a form that would carry both the fragility and perseverance of human existence. In the statuette, I wanted to capture exactly that kind of dignity, which does not show itself loudly, but persists in its simplicity. I hope that the award, given in honor of Paskaljević, will carry on the spirit of his poetics.”
The award will be presented to director Igor Bezinović on October 18th at the closing of the 18th LIFFE.
Igor Bezinović was born in Rijeka. He graduated in film and TV directing at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, as well as philosophy, sociology and comparative literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. He directed the films Blockade (Oktavian award for the best Croatian documentary in 2012), Veruda (Octavian award for the best Croatian documentary in 2015), A Brief Excursion (Velika zlatna arena for the best Croatian feature film in 2017). His last film Fiume o Morte! won the award for best film at the prestigious film festival in Rotterdam this year, while at the 72nd Pula Film Festival it was crowned with six Golden Arenas, including the one for best director.
The Leskovac International Festival of Film Directing – LIFFE was launched in 2008 with the aim of promoting film productions and authors from the country and the region. During its seventeen-year history, organized by the Leskovac Cultural Center, it has developed into a prestigious event that goes beyond local boundaries and is increasingly popular among film buffs and filmmakers. The festival presents the most valuable works from the region and so far more than 300 films have been shown in front of around 100,000 viewers. In addition, LIFFE had a large number of European premieres in Serbia, and cult authors of ex-Yugoslav cinematography came to the Festival. The international festival of film direction in Leskovac was founded with the idea of cultural networking of the region. In the previous seventeen editions, the Festival hosted more than a hundred directors of different generations, as well as a large number of actors and film professionals from Serbia and the region.
PHOTO: Leskovac international festival of film direction – LIFFE