After scooping multiple awards at Locarno and Sarajevo, and most recently a Special Mention at Zagreb, Juraj Lerotić’s feature debut, Safe Place [+leggi anche:
recensione
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intervista: Juraj Lerotić
scheda film], has been crowned as the champion of the 32^nd edition of the FilmFestival Cottbus as well, winning the €25,000 prize donated by the Society for the Administration of Film and Television Rights (GWFF). The jury, consisting of Crossing Europe co-director Sabine Gebetsroither (Austria), producer and documentarian Oana Giurgiu (Romania), Albanian-German actor Kasem Hoxha, and Belarusian film scholar and journalist Igor Soukmanov, praised the feature and the director for having “the courage not only to reveal himself as an auteur, but also to reveal his soul in this film about unconditional love for those close to him”.

Polish filmmaker Damian Kocur was also awarded in the Feature Film Competition, pocketing a Special Award for Best Director for his work on Bread and Salt [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Damian Kocur
scheda film]. The movie also won the DIALOG Award for Understanding Between Cultures. The list of award winners in the main competition is topped off by Iulian Postelnicu, who was awarded for Outstanding Individual Performance for his acting work in Paul Negoescu’s Men of Deeds [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Paul Negoescu
scheda film].

The Award for Best Youth Film in the Youth Film Competition, along with the prize of €5,000 donated by the city of Cottbus, was handed to Szilárd Bernath’s Larry. The same film was also rewarded for being the best debut feature. Boris Guts’ Minsk bagged the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Award, while Tomáš Hodan’s The Last Race won the Audience Award.

The 32^nd FilmFestival Cottbus, dedicated to showcasing relevant cinematic works from Central and Eastern Europe, took place from 8-13 November in various locations in the German town that used to be part of the GDR. A total of 219 films from 48 producing countries were shown, many of them having their German, international or world premieres at the event.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Feature Film Competition

Main Award for Best Film
Safe Place [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Juraj Lerotić
scheda film] – Juraj Lerotić (Croatia/Slovenia)

Special Award for Best Director
Damian Kocur – Bread and Salt [+leggi anche:
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trailer
intervista: Damian Kocur
scheda film] (Poland)

Award for Outstanding Individual Performance
Iulian Postelnicu – Men of Deeds [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Paul Negoescu
scheda film] (Romania/Bulgaria)

Short Film Competition

Main Award for Best Short Film
Last Time – Rinaldas Tomaševičius (Lithuania)

Special Award for a Director
Santtu Salminen – Primal Therapy (Finland)

Youth Film Competition

Award for Best Youth Film
Larry – Szilárd Bernath (Hungary)

Other awards

DIALOG Award for Understanding Between Cultures
Bread and Salt – Damian Kocur

Award for Best Debut Film
Larry – Szilárd Bernath

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
Minsk – Boris Guts (Estonia/Russia)

FIPRESCI Award
Minsk – Boris Guts

Audience Award
The Last Race – Tomáš Hodan (Czech Republic)

MIOB in Shorts Award
Amygdala – Maria Hatzakou (Greece)