“Wow, thank you so much, I don’t know what to say, my heart is pounding. I’m really happy. I’ve tried doing my best for many years and it’s nice to have this now. I’m thankful to the wonderful crew of Triangle of Sadness, they gave me so much power that I ended up getting this. When I think about it, when you're acting, you have many emotions and it pushed you forward, it’s a long run. I have to thank all my friends with whom I acted in theatres across Yugoslavia and made films with. I really believe in collective work. And I thank my family, my wonderful wife and children who support me and were not angry while I was away on my long trips” said Zlatko Burić on stage at the Harpa Hall in Reykjavík accepting the award at the 35th European Film Awards ceremony.

Zlatko Burić’s entire acceptance speech for the Best European Actor award is available in the awards ceremony video (starting at 3:13:21). 

The Croatian actor won the award for his role playing a Russian tycoon in Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s satire Triangle of Sadness. On the same night, the film took home three more accolades, including for Best Film, Best Director (Ruben Östlund) and Best Screenwriter (Ruben Östlund). The entire list of winners is available on this link. 

Alongside Zlatko Burić, nominations for Best Actor included Paul Mescal (Aftersun), Eden Dambrine (Close), Pierfrancesco Favino (Nostalgia) and Elliott Crosset Hove (Godland).

Triangle of Sadness competed for Best Film alongside Carla Simón’s Alcarràs, Lukas Dhont’s Close, Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage and Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider. 

Triangle of Sadness had its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival where it won the Palme d’Or for Best Film. The film is currently screening in theatres across Croatia, distributed by Zagreb Film Festival.  

Burić is the first Croatian in the history of European Film Awards to receive the recognition for Best Actor. Before him, Goran Bogdan was nominated for the same award in 2020, for his role in Croatian minority co-production Father directed by Srdan Golubović (Croatian producers are Lana Matić and Boris T. Matić for Propeler Film). Before that, actress Zrinka Cvitešić broke the ice with her nomination for Best European Actress starring in Jasmila Žbanić’s On the Path in 2010. 

Zlatko Burić was born in Osijek in 1953, and since 1983 lives in Denmark. He took his first steps in acting in his native Osijek and in the 1970s was one of the founders of the alternative theatre troupe Kugla Theatre in Zagreb. He garnered his first major international success playing in Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher trilogy, reprising the role in the British remake in 2012. For his role in Pusher, he won the Bodil Award offered by the Danish Film Critics Association in 1997. Burić also appeared in German director Roland Emmerich’s disaster film 2012, also starring Woody Harrelson, with whom Burić again joined forces in Triangle of Sadness. Zlatko Burić has also appeared in a number of acclaimed roles in Croatia, such as Hana Jušić’s award-winning debut Quit Staring at My Plate, Nevio Marasović’s Comic Sans, Ivan Goran Vitez’ Extracurricular, as well as the TV series The Silence, created by Nebojša Taraba and Miodrag Sila and directed by Dalibor Matanić, for which Burić was nominated for a Heart of Sarajevo in the category of best supporting actor.