Fantasy triumphs at the Trieste Film Festival
- Slovenian director Kukla’s first fiction feature film came out on top at the event, while Anastasija Mirošničenko’s Welded Together claimed Best Documentary
Fantasy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kukla
film profile] by Slovenia’s Kukla is the winner of the Best Feature Film trophy, courtesy of the 37th edition of the Trieste Film Festival, Italy’s foremost event dedicated to Central and Eastern European cinema. The Slovenian filmmaker’s fiction feature film debut (partly shot in Trieste) charts the self-discovery of three rebellious young women caught between love and desire, sparked by their encounter with a transgender woman. The €5,000 prize was awarded by a jury composed of Rebecca De Pas, Reta Guetg and Mariette Rissenbeek who described Fantasy as: “A film that intertwines reality and fantasy with lightness and verve, telling a story that transports the audience. It employs precision, respect and empathy to explore the challenges involved in being a young woman in a deeply traditional environment.”
The Cineuropa Award also went to Fantasy, “for the delicate way in which the film depicts the passage from adolescence to adulthood, raising questions about dreams, friendship, love and intergenerational relationships, whilst presenting a Balkan mosaic of languages, religions and cultures in a modern yet nostalgic manner. For its bubbling, nonconformist and melancholic electronic score, which bolsters the film’s aesthetic sensibility. For the dreamlike cinematography accompanying the film with mysterious lights, fleeting framings, Orphic nights, gigantic moons and mystical golden birds. For the esoteric, libertarian thread intertwining death as a passage and gender transition. For the architectural locations presented as vivid characters in their own right.”
The jury also chose to award a Best Director Special Mention to Lithuania’s Vytautas Katkus for The Visitor [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vytautas Katkus
interview: Vytautas Katkus
film profile].
The Alpe Adria Cinema Award for Best Documentary in Competition, meanwhile, went to Welded Together [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Anastasija Mirošničenko, “a true cinematic masterclass telling a story stranger than fiction and populated by characters of extraordinary strength and presence”, as the jury enthused in their statement.
The panel also bestowed a Special Mention on Yulia Lokshina’s German film, Active Vocabulary [+see also:
film review
film profile], which “tackles a wide range of themes - personal, anecdotal, social and universal – which might seem disconnected at first glance, but which come together to paint a portrait of Russia as a persistently totalitarian state, where those in power ignore the well-being of others”.
The TSFF Shorts Award, for its part, went to The Spectacle by Hungarian director Bálint Kenyeres, while Marian Fărcuț’s Romanian movie The Road Home received a Special Mention.
Audience awards for films presented in competition went to the Polish title Brother [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Maciej Sobieszczański in the fiction feature category, to Militantropos [+see also:
film review
interview: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gor…
film profile] by Ukraine’s Tabor Collective, composed of Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova and Simon Mozgovyi, as Best Documentary, and to the Austrian production Found&Lost by Iranian director Reza Rasouli for Best Short Film.
The full list of awards is as follows:
Fiction Feature Film Competition
Trieste Award for Best Feature Film
Fantasy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kukla
film profile] – Kukla (Slovenia/North Macedonia)
Special Mention
The Visitor [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vytautas Katkus
interview: Vytautas Katkus
film profile] - Vytautas Katkus (Lithuania/Norway/Sweden)
Documentary Feature Competition
Alpe Adria Cinema - Opificio Neirami Award
Welded Together [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Anastasija Mirošničenko (France/Belgium)
Special Mention
Active Vocabulary [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Yulia Lokshina (Germany)
Short Film Competition
TSFF Shorts Award - Fondazione Osiride Brovedani
The Spectacle - Bálint Kenyeres (Hungary/France)
Special Mention
The Road Home - Marian Fărcuț (Romania)
Other awards
Cineuropa Award
Fantasy – Kukla
Audience Awards
Best Fiction Feature
Brother [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Maciej Sobieszczański (Poland)
Best Documentary Feature
Militantropos [+see also:
film review
interview: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gor…
film profile] - Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova, Simon Mozgovyi -Tabor Collective (Ukraine/Austria/France)
Best Short Film
Found&Lost - Reza Rasouli (Austria)
CEI (Central European Initiative) Award
Electing Ms Santa - Raisa Răzmeriță (Moldova)
Corso Salani Award
In the Penal Colony [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Gaetano Crivaro, Alberto Diana, Silvia Perra, Ferruccio Goia (Italy)
Eastern Star Award
Ildikó Enyedi
2026 Cinema Warrior Award
U Cinemittu
In direzione Donna - G.O.A.P. Trieste Anti-Violence Centre
White Lies [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Alba Zari (Italy/Belgium)
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa Award for Best Documentary
The Kartli Kingdom [+see also:
film review
interview: Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pe…
film profile] - Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pebrel (Georgia/France/Qatar)
PAG (Municipality of Trieste Youth Project) Youth Jury Award
Coldness - Lena Jaworska (Poland - short film)
Oubliette Magazine Award
White Lies - Alba Zari
SNCCI Critics’ Award for Best Film
One Battle After Another - Paul Thomas Anderson (USA)
SNCCI Award for Best Italian Film
The Last One for the Road [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Francesco Sossai
film profile] - Francesco Sossai (Italy/Germany)
(Translated from Italian)
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