In Bloom, A Stranger split Sarajevo awards

The 19th Sarajevo Film Festival wrapped last night [24] with In Bloom and A Stranger winning the main awards.

Georgian coming-of-age story In Bloom by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß won the Heart of Sarajevo for best film in the feature competition worth €16,000 provided by the Council of Europe. The film’s two leads, first-timers Lika Babluani and Mariam Bokeria, shared the €2,500 best actress prize.

This adds to In Bloom’s series of awards which includes CICAE at Berlin and FIPRESCI and Golden Firebird in Hong Kong

Bobo Jelcic’s Croatia-Bosnia co-production A Stranger received the special jury prize and €10,000 provided by Agnes B. Living legend of Yugoslav cinema Bogdan Diklic won Heart of Sarajevo for best actor for his role in the film, also worth €2,500.

A Stranger recently won seven Golden Arenas at Croatia’s national Pula Film Festival and the Bauer Award at Motovun.

In the short film competition, Romanian auteur Radu Jude won the €2,500 best film prize for Shadow Of A Cloud.

Two special mentions went to Serbia’s Ana Nedeljkovic and Nikola Majdak Jr. for Rabbitland and Bulgaria’s Pavel G. Vesnakov for Pride.

Austrian film Sickfuckpeople by Juri Rechinsky won the Heart of Sarajevo for best documentary and €3,000 provided by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

The Special Jury Mention was given to Serbia’s Marta Popivoda for Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body.

The Cleaners by Konstantinos Georgousis from Greece won the Special Jury Prize and €2,500, provided by Al Jazeera Balkans.

The Human Rights Award went to Croatia’s Arsen Oremovic for Married To The Swiss Franc. The prize includes €3,000 granted by the Swiss Federal Department of F oreign Affairs.

Sarajevo Film Festival’s co-production market CineLink also presented its awards on the closing night, with Greek writer-director Sofia Exarchou winning the Eurimages Co-production Development Award worth €30,000.

Arte International Relations Cinelink Award worth €6,000 in went to Dogs by Romania’s Bogdan Mirica.

The Fixer by Adrian Silisteanu and Adrian Sitaru from Romania won the CNC CineLink Award and €10,000.

The three projects will each receive €2,500 in services from Synchro Vienna.

The CineLink Excellence Award was given to director Igor Drljaca and producer Adis Djapo from Bosnia and Herzegovina for Tabija. The prize includes a two month residence at the Moulin with panel of script experts.

The project House Of Others by Rusudan Glurjidze and David Chubinishvili from Georgia received €10,000 in services from Living Pictures.

The Work in Progress Post Republic award worth €80,000 in services was given to Kosovo’s Isa Qosja for Three Windows And A Hanging.

The Restart Award of €20,000 in kind went to The Lamb by Kutlug Ataman from Turkey.

Finally, Serbia’s Milena Dzambasovic won the EAVE Scholarship.