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 [+lee también:
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The Best Director Award went to Ilya Povolotsky for his debut feature, Grace [+lee también:
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ficha de la película]. 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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Una Gunjak
ficha de la película]. “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 [+lee también:
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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 [+lee también:
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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 [+lee también:
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ficha de la película]. Also, editor Milena Predić was rewarded with the Marko Glušac Editing Award for her work on Guardians of the Formula [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dragan Bjelogrlić
ficha de la película], while Stevan Filipović’s Next to You and Selcen Elgur’s Snow and the Bear [+lee también:
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entrevista: Antonio Lukich
ficha de la película].

Here is the full list of award winners:

Competition

Aleksandar Saša Petrović Grand Prix for Best Film
Critical Zone [+lee también:
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Best Director
Ilya Povolotsky – Grace [+lee también:
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Gordan Mihić Award for Best Script
Una Gunjak – Excursion [+lee también:
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entrevista: Una Gunjak
ficha de la película] (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia/Serbia/France/Norway)
Special Mention
Stepne [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] – Maryna Vroda (Ukraine/Germany/Poland/Slovakia)

Brave Balkans

Best and Bravest Film
Silence of Reason [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] – Kumjana Novakova (North Macedonia/Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Special Mention
Pero [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] – 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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Amat Escalante
ficha de la película] (Mexico/Netherlands/Germany)

Marko Glušac Award for Best Editing
Milena Predić – Guardians of the Formula [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dragan Bjelogrlić
ficha de la película] (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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Selcen Ergun
ficha de la película] – 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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Antonio Lukich
ficha de la película] – Antonio Lukich (Ukraine)