The Constitution is the first film in Raindance’s 25-year tradition to take home three awards. The festival is geared toward independent and unconventional films, and this year’s moto is ‘Discover. Be discovered’. Besides the audience and the expert jury, critics from The Panoptic also praised the film saying ‘Funny, endearing, and incredibly pertinent, director Rajko Grlić and screenwriter Ante Tomić have created a modern masterpiece in slice-of-life film.’ Ante Tomić was at the ceremony to accept the awards.

To date, The Constitution has won a total of 26 awards since its international premiere in Montreal in 2016 where it won the Grand Prize of the Americas. A series of screenings and awards at festivals around the world then followed: the film won the Jeffrey C. Barbakow Award for Best International Feature Film at the Santa Barbara Festival; Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Nebojša Glogovac), as well as the Audience Award at the European Film Festival in Lecce; Best Actor and Actress (Dejan Aćimović and Ksenija Marinković) at the Milan International Film Festival; as well as four Golden Arenas and the Fedeora European Film Critics Award at the Pula Film Festival. The Constitution is also nominated for a European ‘Oscar’ awarded by the European Film Academy.

Ante Tomić and Rajko Grlić wrote the screenplay, the cinematographer is Branko Linta, and the editor is Andrija Zafranović. The producer is Ivan Maloča, and the film is produced by Interfilm (Zagreb), HRT – Croatian Radio Television, In Film (Prague), Revolution (Skopje), Sever&Sever (Ljubljana) and Film&Music Entertainment (London). The film is co-financed by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the Czech Film Fund, the Film Agency of the Republic of Macedonia, and the Film Centre Slovenia, with support from the European Union’s Creative Europe – MEDIA and the European co-production fund Eurimages.

Along with The Constitution, the feature film omnibus Transmania, directed by 15 renowned local authors who each shot a five-minute segment after only viewing the previous segment, also stood-out at the festival. The film was selected into the Top 10 Must See festival films as selected by Elliot Grove, founder of the Raindance Festival and the British Independent Film Awards. The film was shot with support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the City of Rijeka and the City of Zagreb. For more details on Elliot’s Top 10 please follow this link.

The 25th Raindance Film Festival took place in London from September 20th to October 1st. This year’s winners included directors Zachary Cotler and Magdalena Zyzak for the film Maya Dardel, while Jason Wingard’s In Another Life won Best UK Feature Film. Guy Ritchie received the Raindance Auteur Award for his successes in filmmaking and his contribution to the film industry. The festival’s official website can be found here.

Cover photos: Ante Tomić awards ceremony; scene from Transmania