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 [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Vedrana Pribačić, Mirta Pu…
fiche film], 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 [+lire aussi :
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bande-annonce
interview : Juraj Lerotić
fiche film], Dubravka Turić’s Traces [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Dubravka Turić
fiche film] and Josip Žuvan’s Carbide [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Josip Žuvan
fiche film], 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 [+lire aussi :
critique
interview : Luka Rukavina
fiche film] and Lukas Nola’s Escort [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] 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 [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Mila Turajlic
fiche film] was named Best Film. Ksenija Marinković and Adnan Terzić were awarded for their roles in Have You Seen This Woman? [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Dušan Zorić et Matija Gluš…
fiche film] (directed by Matija Gluščević and Dušan Zorić) and The Happiest Man in the World [+lire aussi :
critique
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interview : Teona Strugar Mitevska
fiche film] (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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Vedrana Pribačić, Mirta Pu…
fiche film] – Vedrana Pribačić (Croatia)

Golden Arena for Best Director
Juraj Lerotić – Safe Place [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Juraj Lerotić
fiche film] (Croatia/Slovenia)

Golden Arena for Best Screenplay
Luka Rukavina, Rona Žulj – Cricket & Antoinette [+lire aussi :
critique
interview : Luka Rukavina
fiche film] (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 [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Dubravka Turić
fiche film] (Croatia/Serbia/Lithuania)

Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actress
Ivana Roščič – Carbide [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Josip Žuvan
fiche film] (Croatia/Serbia)

Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor
Krešimir Mikić – Escort [+lire aussi :
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bande-annonce
fiche film] (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 [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Mila Turajlic
fiche film] – Mila Turajlić (Serbia/France/Croatia/Montenegro/Qatar)

Best Actress
Ksenija Marinković – Have You Seen This Woman? [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Dušan Zorić et Matija Gluš…
fiche film] (Serbia/Croatia)

Best Actor
Adnan Omerović – The Happiest Man in the World [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Teona Strugar Mitevska
fiche film] (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 [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] – 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