The official program of the 17th Zagreb Film Festival finished today in the Tuškanac Cinema, but the festival continues on Sunday, November 17, in Tuškanac Cinema, Museum of Modern Art, Dubrava Public University, and Cultural Centre Travno. Before the end screening of The Barefoot Emperor by Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens with the film crew present, director Boris T. Matić and executive director Hrvoje Laurenta announced winners.

The jury for best feature film comprising of director Dana Budisavljević, director Elmir Jukić and director Ágnes Kocsis awarded the Golden Pram for Best Feature Film to the Serbo-Romanian film Ivana the Terrible directed by Ivana Mladenović. “The award goes to the film portrait of a generation which, by the looks of it, is stuck in eternal puberty. Too smart to continue the lives of their parents, but too weak to build a new world. The movie finds the way of captivating the audience’s charm, spontaneity and self irony of the main actress and director. It is also a film that plays and moves the boundaries of documentary and fiction“, explains the jury. The special mention in the feature film category goes to Columbian film Monos by Alejandro Landes for „its visual style, powerful characters and above all creating a meaningful and memorable unique world“.

Screenwriter Stefan Bošković, CEO Klasik TV Maja Jelisić Cooper and director Mladen Stanić, members of jury for short film, decided on the winners of the Golden Pram Award in the international short film competition and the Croatian short film program Checkers. The Award for Best International Short Film was won by the Serbian film The Last Image of Father by Stefan Đorđević. The Last Image of Father is a dramatic story about the relationship between a father and his son. The author has visually depicted the gravity of that relationship and the situation in which we find the characters”. The special mention was won by the Chinese-French film She Runs by Qui Yang. She Runs is a film which managed to avoid the conventional approach to the subject it deals with. Even though stories about the pressure young athletes are facing are not rare, this film authentically shows the consequences that imposed ambitions can have on a young person’s psyche.”

The Golden Pram for Best Croatian Film from the Checkers program was won by the film Snitch by Rino Barbir. The jury of the short film program awarded the Pram with the explanation: “Masterfully combining comedy and social criticism, ‘Snitch’ brings us a stylized, but convincing story about the growing up of a high schooler. The director develops his story precisely, and it leads the youth to clash with his surroundings to which he desperately wants to belong to.” Special mention in the Checkers program was awarded to the film Summer Fruits by Josip Lukić. “With this special mention, the jury wants to encourage the young director who showed clear potential with his film. Summer Fruits stands out with excellent acting performances and natural dialogue which make the whole story convincing and upsetting.”

For the first time this year, the Golden Bicycle Award for Best Film from the Together Again program, which features films screened at earlier editions of ZFF, i.e. films distributed by ZFF in the last ten years, was awarded by ZFF’s audience. Jojo Rabbit by Taika Waititi won the most votes with the average score of 4,82.

Zagreb high school students gathered in the jury of the PLUS program: Lina Jelena Galijatović, Tina Grgić, Lea Magzan, Klara Mišković and Maja Vuković, awarded the film The Diary of Diana B. by director Dana Budisavljević. “We chose this film because it left the best impression for its unique story, visuals, and cast. We would recommend this film to all generations for its strong and inspiring message. The director inspires and thrills the audience with her striking signature”, the jury explained.

The festival audience also voted for the films from the feature film competition. The HT Audience Award was won by the Australian film Babyteeth by director Shannon Murphy, with the audience score of 4,49.

We also know the winners of the Pitching Forum Industry Youth! Students of the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television Ljubljana, Martin Emeršič and Jaka Žilavec won first place with their project, Tempest, and students of the Academy of Dramatic Art Zagreb, Suzana Erbežnik and Marko Dugonjić, won post-production for their project Thirst in the Moonlight.

ZFF director Boris T. Matić said about the festival: “The longest festival edition ever with new locations went really well. All the screenings in the main program were sold out which proves that the audience was satisfied with our film choices.”

The monetary award sponsor for the best feature film (4000 EUR), best short film (1000 EUR), and best youth film in the PLUS program (500 EUR) is Addiko Bank. The monetary award for best film from the Checkers program (10000 KUN) is given by the Croatian Film Directors’ Guild.