After winning the Best First Feature Award at Locarno earlier this month (see the news), Juraj Lerotić’s Safe Place [+lee también:
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entrevista: Juraj Lerotić
ficha de la película] made it two for two on its festival travels in Sarajevo, where it has just won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film. The emotive drama by the Croatian filmmaker was widely expected to win the prize, and he added another for his troubles with the recognition of his lead performance in the film, as well as scooping the Cineuropa Award. Based on his own personal experience, the picture tells the story of a family attempting to piece itself back together in the aftermath of a suicide attempt.

Maryna er Gorbach’s Klondike [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] – one of the most urgently relevant of this year’s festival films, with its focus on occupied Eastern Ukraine – also pulled double duty, with it adding another Best Director Award after it won the very same accolade after its Sundance premiere. Vicky Krieps also gained another Best Actress trophy, for her widely admired work as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Marie Kreutzer’s outré royal biopic Corsage [+lee también:
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ficha de la película].

The feature-film jury handing out these awards included a bevy of recently acclaimed directors, with last year’s top winner Sebastian Meise taking on the role as president. The other filmmakers in the jury were Lucile Hadžihalilović and Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, as well as Serbian actor Milan Marić and Israeli producer Katriel Schory.

Museum of the Revolution [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Srđan Kečaj snagged the Best Documentary Award. Originally premiering in the final months of last year at IDFA, the film unveils the slightly surreal story of a museum from communist Yugoslavia that was left unfinished, and follows the people squatting in its basement in the present day. A jury comprising Azerbaijani director Hilal Baydarov (who just premiered Sermon to the Fish [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] at Locarno), Georgian documentarian Salome Jashi and Dutch curator Margje de Koning were in charge of dispensing the gongs in that section.

The festival, running from 13-19 August this year, toasted a week that boasted record attendance, with sales exceeding the pre-pandemic year of 2019 and cinemas at full capacity. There was also a noted effort to boost Ukrainian filmmakers, both across its competitive sections and also through its tribute and retrospective to Sergei Loznitsa.

The full awards list is as follows:

Competition - Feature Films

Best Feature Film
Safe Place [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Juraj Lerotić (Croatia)

Best Director
Maryna Er Gorbach - Klondike [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Ukraine/Turkey)

Best Actress
Vicky Krieps - Corsage [+lee también:
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entrevista: Marie Kreutzer
entrevista: Marie Kreutzer
ficha de la película] (Austria/Luxembourg/Germany/France)

Best Actor
Juraj Lerotić - Safe Place

Competition - Documentary Films

Best Documentary Film
Museum of the Revolution [+lee también:
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entrevista: Srđan Keča
ficha de la película] - Srđan Keča (Serbia/Croatia/Czech Republic)

Best Short Documentary Film
We, … Composition - Visar Jusufi (Kosovo/Germany) (short film)

Human Rights Award
Bigger than Trauma [+lee también:
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entrevista: Vedrana Pribačić, Mirta Pu…
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Special Jury Award
Fragile Memory [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Igor Ivanko (Ukraine/Slovakia)

Special Jury Mention
Babajanja - Ante Zlatko Stolica (Croatia) (short film)

Competition - Shorts and Student Films

Best Short Film
Amok - Balázs Turai (Hungary/Romania)

Special Jury Mention
5pm Seaside - Valentin Stejskal (Austria/Greece)

Best Student Film
It’s Not Cold for Mosquitoes - Josip Lukić/Klara Šovagović (Croatia)

Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Awards
Jesse Eisenberg
Sergei Loznitsa
Mads Mikkelsen
Ruben Östlund
Paul Schrader

Other awards

Cineuropa Award
Safe Place - Juraj Lerotić

CICAE Award
Safe Place - Juraj Lerotić

Special Award for Promoting Gender Equality
Aftersun [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Charlotte Wells (UK/USA)

European Short Film Candidate for the 2022 European Film Awards
Bachelorette Party - Lola Cambourieu, Yann Berlier (France)

Awards of the Association of Bosnian Filmmakers

“Ivica Matić” Award for Overall Contribution to Bosnian and Herzegovinian Film
Nedžad Begović

“Ivica Matić” Award
The White Fortress [+lee también:
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entrevista: Igor Drljača
ficha de la película] - Igor Drljača (Canada/Bosnia and Herzegovina)

BH Film Student Programme

Best BH Student Film
I Didn’t Make It to Love Her - Anna Fernandez de Paco (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Spain/UK)

Special Jury Award
Sediment - Branislav Stošić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Special Jury Mention
Boja - Anna Fernandez de Paco (Bosnia and Herzegovina/UK)

Pack & Pitch

CineLink Award
The Poor Dove - Calin Laur (Moldova/Romania)
Special Mention
Mother - Aleksandar Arsovski (producer) (North Macedonia)