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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Vedrana Pribačić, Mirta Pu…
ficha de la película], 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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Juraj Lerotić
ficha de la película], Dubravka Turić’s Traces [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dubravka Turić
ficha de la película] and Josip Žuvan’s Carbide [+lee también:
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entrevista: Josip Žuvan
ficha de la película], 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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Luka Rukavina
ficha de la película] and Lukas Nola’s Escort [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] 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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mila Turajlic
ficha de la película] was named Best Film. Ksenija Marinković and Adnan Terzić were awarded for their roles in Have You Seen This Woman? [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dušan Zorić y Matija Glušč…
ficha de la película] (directed by Matija Gluščević and Dušan Zorić) and The Happiest Man in the World [+lee también:
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entrevista: Teona Strugar Mitevska
ficha de la película] (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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Vedrana Pribačić, Mirta Pu…
ficha de la película] – Vedrana Pribačić (Croatia)

Golden Arena for Best Director
Juraj Lerotić – Safe Place [+lee también:
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entrevista: Juraj Lerotić
ficha de la película] (Croatia/Slovenia)

Golden Arena for Best Screenplay
Luka Rukavina, Rona Žulj – Cricket & Antoinette [+lee también:
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entrevista: Luka Rukavina
ficha de la película] (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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dubravka Turić
ficha de la película] (Croatia/Serbia/Lithuania)

Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actress
Ivana Roščič – Carbide [+lee también:
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entrevista: Josip Žuvan
ficha de la película] (Croatia/Serbia)

Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor
Krešimir Mikić – Escort [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mila Turajlic
ficha de la película] – Mila Turajlić (Serbia/France/Croatia/Montenegro/Qatar)

Best Actress
Ksenija Marinković – Have You Seen This Woman? [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dušan Zorić y Matija Glušč…
ficha de la película] (Serbia/Croatia)

Best Actor
Adnan Omerović – The Happiest Man in the World [+lee también:
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entrevista: Teona Strugar Mitevska
ficha de la película] (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 [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] – 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