Along with the main prize, Mustang also won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film, while the Son of Saul, by Hungarian director Lászlo Nemes, received the special jury prize.  The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Film went to Toto and His Sisters by Romanian director Alexandar Nanau, while Best Short Film was awarded to A Matter of Will, by Montenegrin director Dušan Kasalica. The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress was awarded to the team from the Turkish film Mustang, while Best Actor went to the team from the Greek film Chevalier.

The HT Eronet Audience Award for Best Documentary Film was awarded to the Croatian minority coproduction Chasing a Dream directed by Mladen Mitrović. The film chronicles the reunion of a group of Sarajevans who moved to different parts of the world in 1987 as a result of different circumstances, mainly war related.  The film was produced by Fabrika Snova in Belgrade and coproduced by Factum (Zagreb) and Balkan Art Centre (Sarajevo).  The audience awarded the film an excellent score of 4.84.

The Festival Partners Awards were handed out a day earlier, two of which went to Croatian films. Eva Kraljević’s documentary I Like That Super Most the Best won the EDN Talent Grant which is awarded by the European Documentary Network supporting talented regional documentary filmmakers. The film chronicles ten years with Eva’s sister who has Down’s syndrome and was produced by Hulahop. It is interesting to note that Eva Kraljević received the HBO Adria Award at the Docu Rough Cut Boutique in 2013 while the film was still in the project phase.  

Dalibor Matanić’s The High Sun, produced by Kinorama and coproduced by Gustav Film (Slovenia) and SEE Film Pro (Serbia) won the CICAE Prize awarded by the International Confederation of Art Cinemas (CICAE).  The High Sun had its regional premiere at the SFF while Croatian fans will soon have the opportunity to view the film in local cinemas.  The film won the jury prize in the Un Certain Regard programme of the 68th Cannes Film Festival, and was in the official selection of the 2015 LUX Prize awarded by the European Parliament.

Many local films were screened at the 21st Sarajevo Film Festival.  Along with The High Sun, Chasing a Dream and I Like That Super Most the Best, the competition programme also screened the minority coproduction Our Everyday Life by Ines Tanović, while In Focus screened Ivona Juka’s You Carry Me and the minority coproduction No One’s Child by Vuk Ršumović.  These Are the Rules, by Ognjen Sviličić, was screened in the Open Air programme.  A series of short films was screened in the Zagreb Film Festival and the Split Mediterranean Film programmes.  Lost Button, by Renato Tonković, Robert Bubalo and Marijo Vukadin, was shown in the BH Film programme while the programme 1995-2015 Dealing With the Past screened the minority coproduction 15 Minutes – The Dvor Massacre, directed by George Larsen and Kasper Vedsmand.  The documentary was produced by Danish Final Cut For Real and coproduced by Croatian Nukleus Film.

For more information on this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival please go to the official website.