Bulgarian director Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Sister [+lee también:
crítica
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entrevista: Svetla Tsotsorkova
ficha de la película], about a mother and two sisters struggling to survive, has bewitched the jury of the 29^th edition of the FilmFestival Cottbus, winning the Best Film Award and €25,000. “If a film gives the cinema what the cinema loves most, then the enthusiasm of the audience matches that of the jury: it’s about magical portraits, social and personal conflicts, and lots of small inventions that the main character continuously brings into the film,” went the statement by Sergey Dvortsevoy, Luli Bitri, Péter Muszatics, Marija Perović and Peter Badel. “In an extraordinary way, an everyday story emerges that is magnificently photographed, intensively invites the viewer to experience it and gives each character its own cinematic space.”

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Teodor Kuhn’s By a Sharp Knife [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] brought him the Best Director gong as well as €7,500, with the Award for Best Actress (€5,000) going, rather unexpectedly, to the entire female cast of Lendita Zeqiraj’s Aga’s House [+lee también:
crítica
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entrevista: Lendita Zeqiraj
ficha de la película] for “their extremely powerful, vivid and detailed performance in a film, which mirrors the dramatic changes in a Balkan country in a multifaceted way”. Alban Ukaj was named Best Actor for his turn in Nermin Hamzagić’s Full Moon [+lee también:
crítica
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entrevista: Nermin Hamzagić
ficha de la película], which celebrated its world premiere at the festival while telling the story of a policeman forced to come back to his police station for the night shift just as his wife is about to give birth. The film also turned out to be the favourite of the ecumenical jury.

In the Short Film Competition, Franka by Mitriy Semenov-Aleynikov proved unbeatable and was awarded €2,500, with the Special Prize (€1,500) handed out to The Last Trip to the Seaside by Adi Voicu. Marko Škop’s Let There Be Light [+lee también:
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entrevista: Marko Škop
entrevista: Milan Ondrík
ficha de la película] was chosen as Best Youth Film, and Petra Szőcs’ Deva [+lee también:
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entrevista: Petra Szőcs
ficha de la película] was celebrated as the recipient of the DIALOGUE Prize for Intercultural Communication. “The director evokes all of the conflicting emotions and transformative experiences in a highly cinematographic way, using every tool of the filmic language poetically,” it was argued. “She makes us feel this coming-of-age process in our own body.”

She wasn’t the last female director to be noticed, as Dana Budisavljević picked up the Award for Best Debut Film (€3,000) for her black-and-white The Diary of Diana B [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dana Budisavljević
ficha de la película], which combines archive footage with fictional scenes, and Lyubov Borisova’s much lighter The Sun Above Me Never Sets was picked by the audience and the members of FIPRESCI alike, the latter arguing rather interestingly: “Many statements by juries read: ‘It was very hard to decide on a winner among the numerous wonderful films.’ For us, things went differently because, unfortunately, it was rather hard to find a film to give the award to,” went the statement. “The movie that we chose is a fairy tale about the vanishing ties between generations, the social component in their substitute and social networks, which also miraculously manages to play from beginning to end without the use of the verbal filler ‘fuck, fuck and fuck again’. Dear colleagues, please contemplate whether this is really necessary.”

Welcoming over 22,000 visitors, the 29^th edition of the festival ended on 10 November, with Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi [+lee también:
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entrevista: Bartosz Bielenia
entrevista: Jan Komasa
ficha de la película] chosen as the closing film.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Main Prize for Best Film
Sister [+lee también:
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entrevista: Svetla Tsotsorkova
ficha de la película] – Svetla Tsotsorkova (Bulgaria/Qatar)

Special Prize for Best Director
Teodor Kuhn - By a Sharp Knife [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Slovakia/Czech Republic)

Award for Outstanding Actress
Entire female cast - Aga’s House [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lendita Zeqiraj
ficha de la película] (Kosovo/Croatia/France)

Award for Outstanding Actor
Alban Ukaj - Full Moon [+lee también:
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entrevista: Nermin Hamzagić
ficha de la película] (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Best Debut Film
The Diary of Diana B [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dana Budisavljević
ficha de la película] – Dana Budisavljević (Croatia/Slovenia/Serbia)

FIPRESCI Prize
The Sun Above Me Never Sets – Lyubov Borisova (Russia/Yakutia)

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
Full Moon – Nermin Hamzagić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

DIALOGUE Prize for Intercultural Communication
Deva [+lee también:
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entrevista: Petra Szőcs
ficha de la película] – Petra Szőcs (Hungary)

Prize for Best Youth Film
Let There Be Light [+lee también:
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entrevista: Marko Škop
entrevista: Milan Ondrík
ficha de la película] – Marko Škop (Slovakia/Czech Republic)

Short-film competition

Main Prize
Franka – Mitriy Semenov-Aleynikov (Belarus)

Special Prize
The Last Trip to the Seaside – Adi Voicu (Romania)