The awards of the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival were presented August 21 at the National Theatre Sarajevo.
The Documentary Jury comprised Kamal Aljafari (director, screenwriter and artist, Palestine); Sabine Gebetsroither (Co-Festival Director of the CROSSING EUROPE Filmfestival Linz, Austria), and Ollie Huddleston (film editor, United Kingdom).
Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić’s To Hold a Mountain (Serbia, France, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia) won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Feature Film. The €4,000 award qualifies the film for Oscar® consideration. Jury citation: “With astonishingly epic cinematography this touching portrait of two extraordinary women and a disappearing way of life enchanted us. Tied together by a traumatic past their struggle to save the mountain was an unforgettable journey.”
The UniCredit Audience Award for Best Documentary Film went to We Shall Live Together by Damir Markovina, with an average rating of 5.000. The next two highest-rated films were When I Get Out directed by Metod Pevec, average rating 4.923; and The Balkan Cowboy, directed by Dragana Jurišić (average rating 4.895).
Karla Jelić’s Holy Defiance (Croatia) won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Short Film, valued at €2,000. Jury citation: “This short and extremely powerful film featured a brave act of defiance against resurgent male misogyny. We salute the film‘s courageous artist who stood alone against reactionary crowds trying once again to confine society and silence women.”
Zhora Papoian won a A Special Jury Award (€2500) for The Ferry Flows (United Kingdom). Jury citation: “Without being didatic, this short film showed the power of images to tell stories. We were given time and space to experience the lives of a music teacher and his pupils who are forced to endure grief and loss as part of their daily lives. This is a film made with tenderness and subtlety, its humanity shone through.”
Helena Maksyom’s Don’t Ask Me If I Killed (Romania, Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine) won a Special Mention for Promoting Gender Equality. Jury citation: With extraordinary courage, clarity and cinematic confidence, this film takes us inside an extreme reality. The filmmaker is both a soldier and a director, yet the strength of the film goes far beyond the exceptional circumstances. In precise images and a strong sense of rhythm the filmmaker transforms the everyday experience on the front in the Donetsk into a cinematic experience. A powerful and deeply human film.”
