29/09/2003 - The Serbian screenwriter of Underground has been awarded for The Professional, an original story telling the dramatic events in Yugoslavia with intelligent irony

The Serbian Dusan Kovacevic has won the prizes for Best Film and Best Screenplay with The Professional at the 20th edition of the EuropaCinema festival in Viareggio. The screenwriter of Underground was awarded because of his extremely original story that showed the events of the past ten years in Yugoslavia with intelligent irony. The film by Tonino Zangardi, Prendimi e portami via, won the award for Best Actress for Valeria Golino, who once again showed incredible maturity in her performance as an actress.

Evil by the Swede Mikael Håfström won Andreas Wilson the prize for Best Actor, he’s one of the current young upcoming European acting talents. Evil was also awarded the FIPRESCI Platinum Award, while a Special Jury Prize was given to the British film Cloud Cuckoo Land by Matt Dickinson. The actor and musician Max Beesley won the prize for Best Soundtrack for the film Emperor's Wife by Julien Vrebos. The winner of the documentaries section was Resist by the German Dirk Szuszies.

The festival’s director, Felice Laudadio, also announced some changes for the next edition of the festival: alongside the competition for European films, there will be another one started purely for Italian films, the Film Fest Italia..
After the success of this year’s cinema lessons, next year will feature ken Loach as the main participant.