‘I am incredibly honoured that Srbenka won this prestigious prize, I couldn’t ask for a better reward. And the significance of it is even more telling knowing that this prize is awarded here, in Cannes. This prize is collectively awarded by 7 of the biggest European documentary film festivals who select one film – the film of the year – from all the films screened at all those festivals. I think this a great way to announce the film’s Croatian premiere which will take place at the Motovun Film Festival in July,’ said Nebojša Sljepčević after accepting the award in Cannes on May 12th. 

Srbenka is produced by Restart, the producer is Vanja Jambrović, and the editor is Tomislav Stojanović. Along with Slijepčević, the cinematographers are Bojan Mrđenović and Iva Kraljević, and the sound editing and mixing is by Tihomir Vrbanec and Ivan Zelić. The executive producers are Rea Rajčić and Tibor Keser. The film received financial support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the cities of Rijeka and Zagreb, and MEDIA Sub-programme.

Doc Alliance is a creative partnership between seven key European documentary film festivals. One of the organization’s activities, which has been active since 2008, is to select the ‘documentary of the year’. Each festival, members of the organization, nominate one film which screened in their competition. Each festival also selects their own jury member and together, the seven members decide upon the winner. The aim of the Doc Alliance Award is to promote documentary film, support diversity in documentary expression and direct attention toward exceptional films in this genre.

More information is available at this link.

Cover photos: Nebojša Slijepčević (photo credit: HAVC and Doc Alliance)