Stefan Ðorďević’s Wind, Talk to Me has snapped up the top prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival, taking the Heart of Sarajevo award for Best Feature Film. The Serbia-Slovenia-Croatia co-production, which earned €16,000 with the prize, is a blend of documentary and fiction and also stars the Serbian helmer and his family.
The project sees Ðorďević reuninte with his family to celebrate his grandmother’s birthday for the first time since his mother died. According to a synopsis, “this homecoming, driven by Stefan’s urge to complete a film about his mother as well as an attempt to make amends by rescuing a strat dog, will ignite an introspective journey.”
Elsewhere, Ivana Mladenović picked up the Heart of Sarajevo award for Best Director for her project Sorella Di Clausura while the ensemble cast of Fantasy – Sarah el Saleh, Alina Juhard, Mia Skrbinac and Mina Milovanoviċ – all won for Best Actress.
Yugo Florida star Andrija Kuzmanović took the prize for Best Actor while Best Documentary Film went to Ivette Löcker’s Our Time Will Come. The latter project focuses on a year in the life of an interracial couple.
Sarajevo’s four competition sections included feature, documentary, short and student films. The festival screened 15 world, six international, 28 regional and two national premieres throughout the eight-day event. A total of 50 films competed for the Heart of Sarajevo Awards.
The jury comprised of Ukrainian helmer Sergie Loznitsa, who served as president, actor Dragan Mićanović, director-writer-actor Emanuel Pârvu, writer-director Ena Sendijarević and Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle.
Here’s the full line up of the winners for the festival, which wrapped August 22:
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST FEATURE FILM
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.
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DIRECTOR
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.
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTRESS
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.
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTOR
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.
COMPTETITION PROGRAMME – DOCUMENTARY FILM
Jury:
Blake Levin (producer, USA)
Cíntia Gil (film curator, Portugal)
Veton Nurkollari (artistic director of DokuFest and film curator, Kosovo*)
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
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.
AN OSCAR® QUALIFYING FILM
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.
SPECIAL JURY AWARD
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.
SPECIAL MENTION
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.
COMPETITION PROGRAMME – SHORT FILM
Jury:
Teresa Cavina (festival programmer and script doctor, Italy)
Cem Demirer (cinematographer and director, Türkiye)
Nebojša Slijepčević (director and writer, Croatia)
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT FILM
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.
SPECIAL MENTION
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.
COMPETITION PROGRAMME – STUDENT FILM
Jury:
Miroslav Mandić (director and writer, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Nađa Petrović (writer, screenwriter and director, Serbia)
Yorgos Tsourgiannis (producer, Greece)
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST STUDENT FILM
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.
SPECIAL AWARD FOR PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY
Jury:
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.
SPECIAL YOUTH PERSPECTIVES AWARD
Jury:
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.
PARTNERS’ AWARDS
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM CANDIDATE
Jury:
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.
CICAE AWARD
Jury:
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.
CINEUROPA PRIZE
Jury:
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.