Serbian filmmaker Stefan Đorđević‘s “Winds, Talk to Me,” an exploration of the mother-son relationship, won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival.
The film is inspired by Đorđević’s own experiences, and stars members of his family. It centers on Stefan, who reunites with his family to celebrate his grandmother’s birthday for the first time since his mother died. This homecoming, driven by Stefan’s urge to complete a film about his mother as well as an attempt to make amends by rescuing a stray dog, will ignite an introspective journey.
The jury said Đorđević “takes a formally bold and inquisitive approach to his very personal subject, working with his collaborators to combine elements of fiction and documentary into a film of beguiling melancholy and delicate beauty.”
The best director award went to Serbian director Ivana Mladenović for “Sorella Di Clausura,” a story about a woman from rural Romania who falls in love with a Balkan musician after seeing him on television. The jury said: “The punk spirit is never far away in this skilfully directed film, which flows like a Dostojevskean river, stacking failure on failure, to finally arrive at a romantic comedy, but without the romance.”
The best actress prize went to the actresses of “Fantasy,” Sarah al Saleh, Alina Juhart, Mia Skrbinac and Mina Milovanović.
The film follows best friends Mihrije, Sina and Jasna, who are in their early twenties. They live in Slovenia, and refuse to conform to the conservative system they live in. Their world is turned upside down when they meet Fantasy, a transgender woman.
The jury said: “In a film exploring the distances between how we understand ourselves and how others perceive us, our ensemble of talented actresses brought great charisma and authenticity to their roles.”
The best actor award went to Andrija Kuzmanović for “Yugo Florida,” which centers on Zoran, whose awkward, almost pointless life is turned upside down when his estranged and intolerable father is diagnosed with a terminal illness and Zoran commits himself to helping him through his final weeks.
The jury said he “brings depth and complexity to a performance of deceptive simplicity, as his character struggles to unlearn a lifetime of avoiding emotional closeness.”
Awards of the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival
COMPETITION PROGRAM – FEATURE FILM
Jury: Sergei Loznitsa, president (director and writer, Ukraine), Dragan Mićanović (actor, Serbia), Emanuel Pârvu (director, writer, actor, Romania), Ena Sendijarević (director, writer, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Netherlands), and Tricia Tuttle (Berlin Film Festival director, U.S./U.K.)
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST FEATURE FILM
WIND, TALK TO ME (VETRE, PRIČAJ SA MNOM)
Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia
Director: Stefan Đorđević
Producers: Dragana Jovović, Ognjen Glavonić, Stefan Ivančić
Award in the amount of €16,000.
Jury statement: “The filmmaker behind our best film takes a formally bold and inquisitive approach to his very personal subject, working with his collaborators to combine elements of fiction and documentary into a film of beguiling melancholy and delicate beauty.”
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DIRECTOR
Ivana Mladenović, SORELLA DI CLAUSURA
Romania, Serbia, Italy, Spain
Award in the amount of €10,000.
Jury statement: “The punk spirit is never far away in this skilfully directed film, which flows like a Dostojevskean river, stacking failure on failure, to finally arrive at a romantic comedy, but without the romance.”
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTRESS
FANTASY ensemble – Sarah al Saleh, Alina Juhart, Mia Skrbinac, Mina Milovanović
Slovenia, North Macedonia
Award in the amount of €2,500.
Jury statement: “In a film exploring the distances between how we understand ourselves and how others perceive us, our ensemble of talented actresses brought great charisma and authenticity to their roles.”
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTOR
Andrija Kuzmanović, YUGO FLORIDA
Serbia, Bulgaria, France, Croatia, Montenegro
Award in the amount of €2,500.
Jury statement: “Our best actor brings depth and complexity to a performance of deceptive simplicity, as his character struggles to unlearn a lifetime of avoiding emotional closeness.”
COMPTETITION PROGRAM – DOCUMENTARY FILM
Jury: Blake Levin (producer, USA), Cíntia Gil (film curator, Portugal) and Veton Nurkollari (artistic director of DokuFest and film curator, Kosovo)
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
OUR TIME WILL COME (UNSERE ZEIT WIRD KOMMEN)
Austria
Director: Ivette Löcker
Award in the amount of €4,000.
Jury statement: “The Heart of Sarajevo award for best documentary feature goes to a film that combines the beauty and the challenges of creating togetherness, with the generosity and rigor of making films in the intimacy of lives being lived. It is a film that builds a cinematic time and space for the complexities of love and the politics of coexistence, valuing the richness that each person may bring to our common spaces.”
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM
THE MAN’S LAND (KACEBIS MITSA)
Georgia, Hungary
Director: Mariam Bakacho Khatchvani
Award in the amount of €2,000.
Jury statement: “To a film that brings forward and challenges a centuries old custom. With unobtrusive, yet close and intimate camera work, and with precise editing, we are presented a film that speaks volumes about injustice and integrity.”
SPECIAL JURY AWARD
IN HELL WITH IVO
Bulgaria, United States
Director: Kristina Nikolova
Award in the amount of €2,500.
Jury statement: “[The award is given] for the filmmaker’s deft ability to let her iconoclast subject’s charisma and talent erupt on screen, shaping a narrative of Ivo’s performances that push audiences into discomfort with honesty, compassion, and connection.”
SPECIAL MENTION
I BELIEVE THE PORTRAIT SAVED ME (MUA BESOJ MË SHPËTOJ PORTRETI)
Kosovo, Netherlands
Director: Alban Muja
Jury statement: “[The award is given] to a formally daring film that uses re-enactment to tell a story of survival during the war, as well as the power of art.”
COMPETITION PROGRAM – SHORT FILM
Jury: Teresa Cavina (festival programmer and script doctor, Italy), Cem Demirer (cinematographer and director, Turkey) and Nebojša Slijepčević (director and writer, Croatia)
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT FILM
WINTER IN MARCH (LUMI SAADAB MEID)
Armenia, Estonia, France, Belgium
Director: Natalia Mirzoyan
Award in the amount of €2,500.
Jury statement: “The Heart of Sarajevo goes to the film done with exceptional precision and amazing creativity. It’s an authentic story of inner conflict that comes from facing your country falling into the moral abyss.”
SPECIAL MENTION
ERASERHEAD IN A KNITTED SHOPPING BAG
Bulgaria
Director: Lili Koss
Jury statement: “The special mention goes to the playful film that is set against the backdrop of the Bulgarian rough 90s, where children, left to grow up by themselves, invent their own world. The narrative subtly emerges from witty smart and believable human interactions, directed with youthful energy and supported by vivid cinematography.”
COMPETITION PROGRAM – STUDENT FILM
Jury: Miroslav Mandić (director and writer, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Nađa Petrović (writer, screenwriter and director, Serbia) and Yorgos Tsourgiannis (producer, Greece)
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST STUDENT FILM
TARIK
Serbia
Director: Adem Tutić
Award in the amount of €1,000.
Jury statement: “A teenage boy floats through the spaces that define his youth, thanks to a visual approach dominated by the fuzzy depth of field, supported by intense acting and crisp dialogue. It is not a dreamy levitation, but the hardship caused by toxic masculinity of his peers and his family, primarily by his sensitive soul. [The prize is given] for the deliberate aesthetics that employ remarkably sparse means and thus aptly convey important narrative issues, for the details that are thoroughly considered and subtly woven into the narrative.”
SPECIAL AWARD FOR PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY
Jury: Anna Croneman (producer and CEO of the Swedish Film Institute, Sweden), Ivan Marinović (director, writer and producer, Montenegro) and Norika Sefa (director and writer, Kosovo)
GOD WILL NOT HELP (BOG NEĆE POMOĆI)
Croatia, Italy, Romania, Greece, France
Director: Hana Jušić
Award in the amount of €7,500.
SPECIAL YOUTH PERSPECTIVES AWARD
Jury: Anja Jokić (youth policy specialist, Serbia), Eréndira Núñez Larios (producer, Mexico) and Milan Stojanović (producent, Serbia)
DJ AHMET
North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia
Director: Georgi M. Unkovski
Award in the amount of €7,500.
PARTNERS’ AWARDS
EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM CANDIDATE
Jury: Gregor Božič (director, cinematographer, Slovenia), Kasia Karwan (film consultant, Poland) and Dominique Welinski (producer and film consultant, France)
THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD
Greece, United States
Director: Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis
The winner receives candidacy for the European Film Academy’s Best Short Film Award.
CICAE AWARD
Jury: Alexander Omar Lang (film curator and programmer, Germany), Sylvie Da Rocha (artistic director, Cinema Zola, Portugal) and Diego Ginartes Rodríguez (film curator, programmer and cultural producer, Spain)
WHITE SNAIL
Austria, Germany
Director: Elsa Kresmer, Levin Peter
CINEUROPA PRIZE
Jury: Srdjan Kurpjel (composer and sound editor, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Alfonso Rivera (film journalist and critic, Spain)
DJ AHMET
North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia
Director: Georgi M. Unkovski