04/12/2023 - Grace, Excursion and Silence of Reason were also among the awardees at the Serbian gathering

Director Ali Ahmadzadeh picking up his Aleksandar Saša Petrović Grand Prix for Best Film for Critical Zone (© Filip Olćan)

The Festival of Auteur Film, which took place from 24 November-1 December, gave out its awards on Friday, at a ceremony held in the main venue, the MTS Hall in Belgrade, Serbia. It was the 29th edition of the gathering, which has run annually since 1994. Since 2020, it has also been part of the Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region. This year’s edition saw screenings of 82 films, encompassing features, mid-length titles and shorts, all ranging from documentary, through fiction, to hybrid genres. There were 13 sections in all, taking in competitive, non-competitive and retrospective strands, and the festival unspooled at seven venues around the Serbian capital. It also hosted the eighth French-Serbian Cinema Meeting.

Ali Ahmadzadeh’s Critical Zone [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] continued its triumphant tour of the film-festival circuit, which started with its world premiere at Locarno, where it earned its director the Golden Leopard. In Belgrade, it scooped the Aleksandar Saša Petrović Grand Prix, and the jury, consisting of filmmakers Valentina Maurel and Klemen Kalev as well as editor Vanja Kovačević, stated that Critical Zone is a film that introduces a new and strong voice, is generous and full of ideas, and shows us the face of a country’s youth that often remains hidden. “The film is characterised by its incredibly bold political stance that can only be expressed through humour, in a tour-de-force manner,” the jury stated in its explanation.

The Best Director Award went to Ilya Povolotsky for his debut feature, Grace [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. It was praised for exhibiting a strong and self-assured film language in a tense movie with a unique setting. Writer-director Una Gunjak won the Gordan Mihić Award for Best Script for her work on Excursion [+see also:
film review
interview: Una Gunjak
film profile]. “The award goes to a script that intelligently exposes the dynamics of ostracization and paints the portrait of its young heroine, who has to carry the burden of the failure of the whole of society,” went the explanation of the jury, who also decided to reward Maryna Vroda’s Stepne [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] with a Special Mention.

In the Brave Balkans section, the jury, consisting of Dina Pokrajac, Dimitris Kerkinos and Nikola Stojanović, singled out Kumjana Novakova’s documentary Silence of Reason [+see also:
film review
film profile] as the “Best and Bravest Film”, praising it for its matter-of-fact way of presenting forensic evidence, courtroom transcripts and testimonies, through which the filmmaker and her team transform the disturbing material into a razor-sharp film language devoid of any kind of emotional manipulation. The same jury singled out another documentary, Damjan Kozole’s Pero [+see also:
film review
film profile], granting it a Special Mention.

The Professor Vlada Petrić Award for the Most Cinematic Sequence in Honour of Slavko Vorkapić went to Wei Shujun for inspector Ma Zhe’s dream sequence in the film Only the River Flows. Cinematographer Adrian Durazo scooped the Aleksandar Petković Best Cinematography Award for his work on Amat Escalante’s Lost in the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Amat Escalante
film profile]. Also, editor Milena Predić was rewarded with the Marko Glušac Editing Award for her work on Guardians of the Formula [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dragan Bjelogrlić
film profile], while Stevan Filipović’s Next to You and Selcen Elgur’s Snow and the Bear [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Selcen Ergun
film profile] were singled out as the Best-produced Serbian Film and Best-produced Minority Co-production, respectively. Veteran Yugoslav filmmaker Boro Drašković was honoured with the View of the World: Vojislav Vučinić Lifetime Achievement Award, while the Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region Audience Award went to Antonio Lukich’s Luxembourg, Luxembourg [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Antonio Lukich
film profile].

Here is the full list of award winners:

Competition

Aleksandar Saša Petrović Grand Prix for Best Film
Critical Zone [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Ali Ahmadzadeh (Iran/Germany)

Best Director
Ilya Povolotsky – Grace [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Russia)

Gordan Mihić Award for Best Script
Una Gunjak – Excursion [+see also:
film review
interview: Una Gunjak
film profile] (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia/Serbia/France/Norway)
Special Mention
Stepne [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Maryna Vroda (Ukraine/Germany/Poland/Slovakia)

Brave Balkans

Best and Bravest Film
Silence of Reason [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Kumjana Novakova (North Macedonia/Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Special Mention
Pero [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Damjan Kozole (Slovenia)

Non-statutory awards

Professor Vlada Petrić Award for Most Cinematic Sequence in Honour of Slavko Vorkapić
Wei Shujun – Only the River Flows (China)

Aleksandar Petković Award for Best Cinematography
Adrian Durazo – Lost in the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Amat Escalante
film profile] (Mexico/Netherlands/Germany)

Marko Glušac Award for Best Editing
Milena Predić – Guardians of the Formula [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dragan Bjelogrlić
film profile] (Serbia/Slovenia/Montenegro/North Macedonia)

Best-produced Serbian Film
Next to You – Stevan Filipović (Serbia)

Best-produced Serbian Minority Co-Production
Snow and the Bear [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Selcen Ergun
film profile] – Selcen Elgur (Turkey/Germany/Serbia)

View of the World: Vojislav Vučinić Lifetime Achievement Award
Boro Drašković

Audience Award of the Network of the Festivals in the Adriatic Region
Luxembourg, Luxembourg [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Antonio Lukich
film profile] – Antonio Lukich (Ukraine)