At the recently concluded 31st Sarajevo Film Festival, out of fifty films in several competitive selections, four Serbian productions were crowned with the “Heart of Sarajevo” award.
The “Heart of Sarajevo” award for the best film of the festival was won by the film Wind, Talk to Me directed by Stefan Đorđević and produced by Non-Aligned Films (Dragana Jovović, Ognjen Glavonić, Stefan Ivančić).
The jury, which consisted of director and screenwriter Sergej Loznica, director and screenwriter Ena Sendijarević, director, screenwriter and actor Emanuel Parvu, director of the International Film Festival in Berlin, Tricia Tuttle and actor Dragan Mićanović, said the following in its explanation:
The director of our Best Film boldly and curiously approaches his deeply personal subject, and in cooperation with his collaborators he interweaves elements of fiction and documentary expression into a film of enchanting melancholy and subtle beauty. We are pleased to present the HEART of SARAJEVO to the producers and director of the film WIND, TALK TO ME.
The “Heart of Sarajevo” award for best director was presented to Serbian director Ivana Mladenović for the film Sorella di Clausura. The jury stated the following: The punk spirit is never far away in this skilfully directed film, which flows like a Dostoevsky river, chaining failure after failure, to finally reach the ground of romantic comedy, but without romance. The award for best director is awarded to Ivana Mladenović for the film SORELLA DI CLAUSURA.
“Heart of Sarajevo” – best actor was awarded to the Serbian actor Andrija Kuzmanović for the role of Zoran in the film Yugo Florida, directed by Vladimir Tagić, which had its world premiere at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The jury stated: our best actor brings depth and layering to a seemingly simple performance, while his character struggles to forget a lifetime of avoiding emotional closeness.
The best student film jury consisted of Nađa Petrović, writer, screenwriter and director; Miroslav Mandić, director and screenwriter, and producer Jorgos Curjanis. The jury awarded the film Tarik, stating the following: A teenager floats through the spaces that define his youth, thanks to a visual approach dominated by blurred depth of field, supported by intense acting and clear dialogues. It is not about dreamy fluttering, but about the difficulties caused by the toxic masculinity of his peers and family, primarily his sensitive spirit. The award goes to the film TARIK, directed by Adem Tutić, for a well-thought-out aesthetic that uses extremely sparing means and thereby faithfully conveys important narrative themes, and for details thoroughly considered and subtly woven into the story.
The special awards “Youth Perspectives” and “Cineuropa Award” went to the film DJ Ahmet, a minority Serbian co-production by Baš Čelik Film Company and producer Jelena Mitrović, directed by Georgi M. Unkovski.
This film was also awarded the UniCredit Audience Award, which it shared with the documentary film The Track by Ryan Sidhoo.
The complete list of awards can be found on the official page of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
FOTO: Sarajevo Film Festival, (c) Obala Art Centar