“For his warm and personal approach in dealing with the disturbing times and circumstances in which we live. For his open and genuine audiovisual form and language, as well as his warmth in relating to the people he encounters, the 13th Beldocs short film jury unanimously awards White Christmas directed by Josip Lukić the best short film award,” said the statement of the jury comprised of Kumjana Novakova, Ivan Salatić and Goran Dević.  

Director Josip Lukić was very pleased with the fact that the jury recognized the ‘true emotion’ in the film and his approach to filmmaking.

“I have always wanted to make a kind of an ‘anti-film’, outside any prescribed narrative forms, based only on a sort of inner feeling, a film in which mentions the daily political banalities in passing, along with some of my social fixations, which is why I am pleasantly surprised by this. I am very glad about this award at Beldocs because it is a wonderful encouragement to continue experimenting in my filmmaking,” said Lukić.  

Croatian minority co-production, feature-length documentary Speak So I Can See You directed by Marija Stojnić (with Vanja Jambrović and Tibor Keser of Restart as Croatian producers) has been awarded the best film in the national Serbian competition. On the occasion of accepting the award, the director thanked the festival, jury and the audience as well as everyone who believed in and supported the film. “This is a great recognition, not only for the film’s creative team, but also to the creative work of Radio Belgrade and all the authors whose work was featured in the film,” said the film’s author.      

In addition, the documentary-animated film in development Funk Yu, directed by Franko Dujmić and produced by Tamara Babun, a Wolfgang & Dolly production, co-produced by Astral Film and Nana 143, won a special jury mention in the film development programme, Beldocs in Progress.

This year’s Beldocs special screenings programme also included Nikolina Barić’s mid-length documentary Doctor, I'm Going to My Grave.

After the awards ceremony, this year’s edition of Beldocs closed with a screening of iHuman, by Norwegian director Tonja Hessen Schei.

For more information about Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, visit the festival’s official website.

Cover photographs: scenes from White Christmas; Speak So I Can See You; Funk Yu