678 wins Split

by Vladan Petkovic

13/06/2012 - The fifth Festival of Mediterranean Film in Split (June 2-8) ended with Mohamed Diab’s 678 from Egypt winning the main prize.

The winner of awards at festivals in Taormina, Montpellier, Dubai and Chicago, as well as the High Commendation at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards took the prize in the competition of 11 feature films from Mediterranean countries, including Caesar Must Die [trailer, film focus], Alps [trailer], Sleep Tight [trailer], and Marija's Own.

In the international short film competition, Turkish director Metin Akdemir won the best film award for I’ve Come and I’m Gone, while in the selection of Croatian shorts Igor Seregi’s Animal Kingdom got the main award and Zdenko Basic and Manuel Semberac received a special mention for Oars.

The attendance of the fifth edition of the festival rose to 12,000 admissions, compared with 10,000 last year, despite a cancelled screening at the 800-seat open air Cinema Bacvice due to rain.

“We expected a high attendance, but our audiences managed to surprise us again,” said Alen Munitić, director of the festival. "We had a full house even for art films such as Alps, and the selection of Balkan music documentaries Movie in Groovie proved to be very popular."