27/01/2025 - Films centred on themes of societal alienation and the experience of loneliness have emerged as the main winners of this year's Serbian film gathering

l-r: Varun Tandon, Adem Tutić, Andrea Saavedra de la Teja and Oleg Yershov with their prizes

The coming-of-age anniversary edition of the Kustendorf Film and Music Festival came to a close on Saturday night in the mountains of Serbia with an awards ceremony that celebrated the growth of the festival and the spirit of cinema through the work of emerging filmmakers from around the globe. The gathering, which ran from 22-25 January, covered three strands of films – Contemporary Trends, New Auteurs and the Competition Programme for 16 shorts by up-and-coming filmmakers – as well as a themed section dedicated to Palme d’Or-winning titles.

The ceremony kicked off with a cultural performance and a short film honouring the festival’s past 17 years. The awards presentation was led by filmmaker and festival founder Emir Kusturica, who gave out a special award to India’s Varun Tandon for his film Thursday Special, dubbed by the Serbian filmmaker as the Most Poetic Film Award. While giving out the accolade, Kusturica stated that it was his belief that the most poetic film also indicated the most poetic director.

The Vilko Filač Award for Best Cinematography, juried by Rome-based cinematographer Vladan Radović and French DoP Michel Amathieu, went to DoP Vladislav Burlaka for Possession by Sophia Chigirova. In her acceptance speech made on his behalf, the Russian filmmaker shared that the win was twofold special for her, as Burlaka is her soon-to-be husband, not merely her professional partner. The jury also awarded a Special Mention to DoP Egor Lisovoy for Oleg Yershov’s The Forest. A Little Tragedy, another Russian short. Yershov accepted the award on Lisovoy’s behalf.

The festival’s main prizes were then handed out by three jury members: Naples-born screenwriter-producer Edoardo De Angelis, actress and Serbian film advocate Ksenija Zelenović, and Italian filmmaker Giacomo Abbruzzese, a Kustendorf Golden Egg-winning alumnus best known for Disco Boy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giacomo Abbruzzese
film profile]. Chigirova returned to the stage shortly thereafter, snagging the competition jury’s Special Mention, before the jury moved on to the top three.

Serbian filmmaker Adem Tutić nabbed the Bronze Egg for his film Forty, which sees a man eagerly rushing through his workday in order to celebrate his eponymous birthday with a sex worker. Next, Russia’s Klavdiya Korshunova – with the award accepted on her behalf owing to her absence – took home the Silver Egg for her emotional thriller Not Just Any Day, where a woman is left to fend for herself on the frozen tundra after being left there by her husband without any way to contact anyone, leading to an encounter with a van driver.

Mexican director Andrea Saavedra de la Teja, the director of Castaways (also known as Náufragos), came away with the Golden Egg, as proudly presented by Abbruzzese. The short follows a teenage girl who has the responsibility of taking care of her four-month-old brother forced upon her, which she must balance – or not – with the desire to party with her friends. While accepting the award, Saavedra de la Teja happily thanked everyone back in Mexico who supported the creation of her film.

Here is a full list of this year’s Kustendorf award winners:

Golden Egg
Castaways – Andrea Saavedra de la Teja (Mexico)

Silver Egg
Not Just Any Day – Klavdiya Korshunova (Russia)

Bronze Egg
Forty – Adem Tutić (Serbia)

Special Mention
Possession – Sophia Chigirova (Russia)

Vilko Filač Award for Best Cinematography – Top Prize
Vladislav Burlaka – Possession
Vilko Filač Award for Best Cinematography – Special Mention
Egor Lisovoy – The Forest. A Little Tragedy (Russia)