The feature film competition jury, chaired by Bosnian and Herzegovinian director Danis Tanović gave two awards to A Stranger, directed by Bobo Jelčić: Special Jury Award and Heart of Sarajevo for best actor to the leading actor Bogdan Diklić. A story about a day in the life of a middle-aged man from Mostar whose coming to his old friend’s funeral can cause trouble, premiered at this year’s Berlinale Forum section, and won as many as seven Golden Arenas at Pula Film Festival, including those for best film, director, screenplay and leading actor (Bogdan Diklić) and actress (Nada Đurevska). A Stranger was co-funded by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.


Scene from the film Married to the Swiss Franc by Arsen Oremović

Of five Croatian films in the documentary competition programme, there are two award winners. Married to the Swiss Franc by Arsen Oremović won the Human Rights Award, while Đuro Gavran’s The Verdict won one of the partner awards – EDN Talent Grant, given by the festival and the European Documentary Network to promote talented filmmakers in the region. British Council’s partner award went to the short live-action film by Barbara Vekarić, My! My! My Little Room! The award will make it possible for the director to present her work at Encounters Short Film Festival in Bristol, UK.

Earlier this week, the documentary film project Mia, Myself and an Extra Chromosome won the HBO Adria award at Docu Rough Cut Boutique.

Heart of Sarajevo for best feature film went to the Georgian film In Bloom, directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross, the best documentary film is the Austrian Sickfuckpeople, directed by Juri Rechinsky, and the award for best short film went to Shadow of a Cloud by Romanian director Radu Jude.

The list of all award-winning films is available here, and more information on Croatian films, filmmakers and projects presented at the festival is available here.