The Disobedient triumphs at Cinema City Novi Sad

The seventh Cinema City international film festival, which took place June 21-28 in Novi Sad, Serbia, wrapped with Mina Djukic’s Sundance title The Disobedient winning the Ibis Statuettes for best film, best directing and best female role for Hana Selimovic in the National Class, dedicated to Serbian films.

The best male role award went to Muhamed Dupovac for Slobodan Skerlic’s So Hot Was The Cannon.

The jury consisting of Wide Management’s Managing Director Loic Magneron, official delegate for Cannes Critics’ Week and Programme Consultant for the Hong Kong International Film Festival Raymond Phathanavirangoon, and Peter Stumbur, a programmer for Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, also gave out two special mentions: to Milan Todorovic’s horror title Nymph, and Dragan Nikolic’s documentary The Undertaker.

The FIPRESCI Serbia jury gave its critics’ award to So Hot Was The Cannon.

Serbia has not had official national awards since 2007, and Cinema City is one of two festivals with national competition, the other being the Sopot Film Festival which already starts tomorrow, with a similar local line-up.

Cinema City also boasts a strong international programme, including the newly-established Fresh Danube Films competition, for first or second films by directors from the Danube countries.

Titles in this section competed for the Cineuropa Award, which went to young Hungarian director Yvonne Kerekgyarto’s Free Entry – One Day Of Betty. The film world premiered at the goEast Film Festival in Wiesbaden.

The FIPRESCI jury also judged this selection, and decided to award the Karlovy Vary and Berlinale prizewinner Velvet Terrorists by Pavol Pekarcik, Ivan Ostrochovsky and Peter Kerekes.

In the low-budget film competition Up To 10,000 Bucks, the best film went to Stray Dogs by Indian director Atanu Mukherjee. Special mentions were given to Canada’s Roberto Santaguida for Goran and Serbia’s Vladimir Tagic for Emergency Exit.

In addition, the festival has established a new programme, Cinema City Pro. The programme is intended for film professionals, networking, and topics of significance for Serbian cinema. It is comprised of two parts, Cinema City Campus and Cinema City Industry. 

The festival programme also featured non-competitive sections 360, Planet Rock, Cinema City Shorts, and tributes to Israeli films and legendary Serbian composer Zoran Simjanovic. A total of 120 films were screened to about 30,000 viewers and 500 accredited guests.