Documentary Bigger Than Trauma wins the Grand Golden Arena at the 70th Pula Film Festival
- Safe Place, Traces and Carbide scooped the most individual awards at the Croatian gathering, with three gongs each
On Saturday 22 July, the jubilee 70th edition of the Pula Film Festival (15-23 July) came to its celebratory conclusion with an awards ceremony which took place at the Small Roman Theatre, one of the city's many ancient locations. After the ceremony, the winners took a walk to the festival’s grandest venue, the Arena, also dating from Ancient Roman times, to bow to the audience.
Thirteen feature films of three kinds (fiction, documentary and animation) competed for the Golden Arenas in the national selection, while seven more films were eligible in the Croatian Minority Co-Production competition. The jury deciding the awards in both competitions consisted of five female film professionals: actress Nives Ivanković (who also served as the jury president), screenwriter Tena Štivičić, cinematographer Tamara Cesarec, producer Maja Popović Milojević and filmmaker Snježana Tribuson.
The Grand Golden Arena for Best Film was awarded to the documentary Bigger Than Trauma [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vedrana Pribačić, Mirta Puh…
film profile], directed by Vedrana Pribačić who also co-wrote the script with the film’s producer Mirta Puhlovski. “This film about psychological rehabilitation and restoring the dignity of victims of war rape takes the viewer on a journey through a whole range of feelings, compassion, rage, despair, and helplessness. It brings us into the experience of the most extreme human cruelty, but also restores our faith in human contact and in the power and healing and saving properties of solidarity, patience, and tenderness people are capable of giving one another,” stated the jury. It is worth noting that this was the documentary’s only award at the festival.
The festival was otherwise dominated by three titles, Juraj Lerotić’s Safe Place [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juraj Lerotić
film profile], Dubravka Turić’s Traces [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dubravka Turić
film profile] and Josip Žuvan’s Carbide [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Josip Žuvan
film profile], each winning three awards. With Safe Place, Lerotić was awarded as Best Director while Goran Marković took the award for Best Actor and Marko Brdar for Best Cinematography. Turić got the award for Best Editing, Dubravka Premar for Best Sound Design and Snježana Gorup for Best Make-Up for their work on Traces. Regarding Carbide, along with the Breza award for Best Debut, the film’s supporting actress Ivana Roščić and the special effects team Pleter Fireworks were also awarded with Golden Arenas for their contribution.
Luka Rukavina’s Cricket & Antoinette [+see also:
film review
interview: Luka Rukavina
film profile] and Lukas Nola’s Escort [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] are two more films that received multiple awards, winning two each. Rukavina and co-writer Rona Žulj scooped the Golden Arena for Best Screenplay, while Vjeran Šalamon and Coco Mosquito bagged the award for Best Music. On top of that, Cricket & Antoinette also received the Audience Award, Golden Gate of Pula. Regarding Escort, Krešimir Mikić was awarded the Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor, while Ivan Veljača won the award for Production Design.
The Croatian Minority Co-Production competition was also dominated by a documentary as Mila Turajlić’s Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mila Turajlic
film profile] was named Best Film. Ksenija Marinković and Adnan Terzić were awarded for their roles in Have You Seen This Woman? [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dušan Zorić and Matija Gluš…
film profile] (directed by Matija Gluščević and Dušan Zorić) and The Happiest Man in the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Teona Strugar Mitevska
film profile] (directed by Teona Strugar Mitevska), respectively. The cinematographers Milica Drinić, Marko Kažić and Aleksa Radunović were also awarded for their work on Have You Seen This Woman?, while actress Jelena Kordić Kuret got a Special Mention for her role in The Happiest Man in the World.
Here is the list of all awards:
Croatian Film Competition
Grand Golden Arena
Bigger Than Trauma [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vedrana Pribačić, Mirta Puh…
film profile] – Vedrana Pribačić (Croatia)
Golden Arena for Best Director
Juraj Lerotić – Safe Place [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juraj Lerotić
film profile] (Croatia/Slovenia)
Golden Arena for Best Screenplay
Luka Rukavina, Rona Žulj – Cricket & Antoinette [+see also:
film review
interview: Luka Rukavina
film profile] (Croatia)
Golden Arena for Best Lead Actress
Tihana Lazović – Only When I Laugh (Croatia/Serbia)
Golden Arena for Best Lead Actor
Goran Marković – Safe Place
Golden Arena for Best Cinematography
Marko Brdar – Safe Place
Golden Arena for Best Editing
Dubravka Turić – Traces [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dubravka Turić
film profile] (Croatia/Serbia/Lithuania)
Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actress
Ivana Roščič – Carbide [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Josip Žuvan
film profile] (Croatia/Serbia)
Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor
Krešimir Mikić – Escort [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Croatia/North Macedonia/Kosovo)
Golden Arena for Best Production Design
Ivan Veljača – Escort
Golden Arena for Best Costume Design
Ivana Zozoli Vargović – The Diary of Paulina P. (Croatia)
Golden Arena for Best Music
Vjeran Šalamon, Coco Mosquito – Cricket & Antoinette
Golden Arena for Best Special Effects
Pleter Fireworks – Carbide
Golden Arena for Best Make-up
Snježana Gorup – Traces
Golden Arena for Best Sound Design
Dubravka Premar – Traces
Breza Award for Best Debut Feature
Carbide – Josip Žuvan
Audience Award
Golden Gate of Pula
Cricket & Antoinette – Luka Rukavina
Croatian Minority Co-Production Competition
Best Film
Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mila Turajlic
film profile] – Mila Turajlić (Serbia/France/Croatia/Montenegro/Qatar)
Best Actress
Ksenija Marinković – Have You Seen This Woman? [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dušan Zorić and Matija Gluš…
film profile] (Serbia/Croatia)
Best Actor
Adnan Omerović – The Happiest Man in the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Teona Strugar Mitevska
film profile] (North Macedonia/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Belgium/Croatia/Denmark/Slovenia)
Best Cinematography
Milica Drinić, Marko Kažić, Aleksa Radunović – Have You Seen This Woman?
Special Mention
Jelena Kordić Kuret – The Happiest Man in the World
Works in Progress Pitch
Cash Prize (€6,000 from the Pula Film Festival)
Fiume o morte! - Igor Bezinović (Croatia/Slovenia/Italy)
Sound Post-Production Services (€10,000 from Sleepwalker Sound Studio)
Celebration [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Bruno Anković (Croatia)
Image Post-Production Services (€3,000 from Teleking)
Men on the Island – Ivan Grgur (Croatia)
Screenplay of a Blockbuster Pitch
Winner (€5,000 from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and €5,000 from Blitz)
Black Swan – Hrvoje Hribar
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