05/09/2012 - Miloš Sikavica's The Cloud won the Best Film Award at the tenth Liburnia Film Festival dedicated to Croatian documentaries

The Liburnia Film Festival in Ičići near Rijeka held its tenth edition from Aug 28 to Sept 1. The festival of Croatian documentary films had its strongest competition ever during a year when local films blossomed.

Best Film Award went to Miloš Sikavica's The Cloud about Luka Ritz, an 18-year-old who was beaten to death in 2008 in Zagreb. Ritz became a symbol of revolt against street violence in Croatia. The film portrays Ritz and offers a devastating insight into lives and thoughts of his family and friends.

Željka Sukova's film Marija's Own received a special mention. Screened at Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, Goteborg International Film Festival and numerous other festivals, the film won the FEDEORA critics award at 2011's Karlovy Vary.

The audience award went to Dejan Aćimović's The King about Darko Kralj, Croatian paralympic who lost a leg in the war in Croatia and went on to become Paralympic champion in Beijing and world-record holder in shot put. Two days after the Liburnia Film Festival, Kralj won silver at the London Paralympics and announced his retirement from his sports career.

The competition also included hits such as Ilan Metev's Bulgarian-Croatian-German co-production Sofia's Last Ambulance [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (news), which won the France 4 Visionary Award at the Cannes Critics' Week, Best Balkan Documentary at Prizren's DokuFest and Best Documentary Film over 30 minutes in Karlovy Vary; Djuro Gavran's Big Day, Dana Budisavljević's Family Meals and Goran Trbuljak's L.E.F., all of which competed at Sarajevo Film Festival and Morana Komljenović's Bosanoga (An Entirely Accidental Death), which won a special mention at ZagrebDox.