On Wednesday evening, at the Istrian National Theatre in Pula, the longest-running Croatian film gathering, the Pula Film Festival, gave out its awards. The gala ceremony for the 72nd edition was followed by a screening of the closing film, the documentary The Lost Dream Team, directed by Jure Pavlović.

Documentary and hybrid films dominated this year’s competition, at least according to the jury, consisting of scriptwriter Jelena Paljan, actors Tihana Lazović and Janko Popović Volarić, editor Tomislav Pavlic, and cinematographer and filmmaker Silvestar Kolbas. The Grand Golden Arena for Best Film went to Ivan Ramljak for his doc Peacemaker [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which premiered earlier this year at ZagrebDox. Peacemaker scooped one more Golden Arena when Damir Čučić was rewarded for his editing.

However, the top movie in terms of the sheer number of wins was Igor Bezinović’s docu-fiction Fiume o morte! [+leggi anche:
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Both Golden Arenas for lead actors went to Good Children [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Čejen Černić Čanak
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The competition for minority co-productions was dominated by Nikola Ležaić’s KVIFF title How Come It’s All Green Out Here? [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Vuk Ršumović e Fereshteh H…
scheda film] scooped two Arenas, both for its thesps – Fereshteh Hosseini got Best Leading Actress, and Nikola Ristanovski scooped Best Supporting Actor. In the same category, Vladimir Gojun got the Arena for Best Editor for his work on Urška Djukić’s Little Trouble Girls [+leggi anche:
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This year’s novelty were the Golden Arenas for regional films with no Croatian participation, as well as those for student films. In the former category, Emilija Gašić’s 78 Days [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Emilija Gašić
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The Pula Pro industry and Croatian Independent Cinemas Network awards were presented at a separate ceremony before the gala event. The recipient of the Audience Award and the critics’ scores are yet to be announced.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Croatian Competition

Grand Golden Arena for Best Film
Peacemaker [+leggi anche:
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Golden Arena for Best Director
Igor Bezinović – Fiume o morte! [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Croatia/Slovenia/Italy)

Golden Arena for Best Screenplay
Nikolina Bogdanović, Filip Peruzović – Good Children [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Croatia/France)

Golden Arena for Best Production
Vanja Jambrović, Tibor Keser – Fiume o morte!

Golden Arena for Extraordinary Directorial Approach
Goran Dević – Pavilion 6 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Goran Dević
scheda film] (Croatia)

Golden Arena for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nina Violić – Good Children

Golden Arena for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Filip Šovagović – Good Children

Breza Award for Best Actor in a Debut Role
Lav Novosel – Sandbag Dam [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Čejen Černić Čanak
scheda film] (Croatia/Slovenia/Lithuania)

Golden Arena for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Zrinka Cvitešić – Dražen (Croatia/Serbia/Slovenia)

Golden Arena for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Andrija Žunec – Sandbag Dam

Golden Arena for Best Casting
Sara Jakupec – Fiume o morte!

Golden Arena for Best Cinematography
Tomislav Sutlar – Good Children

Golden Arena for Best Editor
Damir Čučić – Peacemaker

Golden Arena for Best Music
Domas Strupinskas – Sandbag Dam

Golden Arena for Best Production Design
Anton Spazzapan – Fiume o morte!

Golden Arena for Best Costume Design
Tajči Čekada, Manuela Paladin – Fiume o morte!

Golden Arena for Best Make-up
Ivana Pralija – Fiume o morte!

Golden Arena for Best Sound Design
Julij Zornik – Sandbag Dam

Golden Arena for Best Visual Effects
Marino Vuletić, post-production company Poster – Dražen

Minority Co-production Competition

Golden Arena for Best Film
How Come It’s All Green Out Here? [+leggi anche:
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Golden Arena for Best Leading Actress
Fereshteh Hosseini – Dwelling Among the Gods [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Vuk Ršumović e Fereshteh H…
scheda film] (Serbia/Croatia/Italy)

Golden Arena for Best Leading Actor
Filip Đurić – How Come It’s All Green Out Here?

Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor
Nikola Ristanovski – Dwelling Among the Gods

Golden Arena for Best Cinematography
Aleksandar Pavlović – How Come It’s All Green Out Here?

Golden Arena for Best Editing
Vladimir Gojun – Little Trouble Girls [+leggi anche:
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trailer
scheda film] (Slovenia/Croatia/Italy/Serbia)

Regional Competition

Golden Arena
78 Days [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Emilija Gašić
scheda film] – Emilija Gašić (Serbia)
Special Mention
Enough for Now [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Marko Đorđević (Serbia)

Student Competition

Golden Arena
Greek Apricots – Jan Krevatin (Croatia/Slovenia) (short film)
Special Mention
Spot – Sara Alavanić (Croatia) (short film)

Croatian Independent Cinemas Network Award

Best Croatian Film
South Wind [+leggi anche:
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Best Film in the Greater Adria Programme
Sirât [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Óliver Laxe
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Pula Pro Awards

Works in Progress Pitching Awards

Sleepwalker €5,000 In Services Award
Yugo Goes to America – Filip Grujić, Aleksa Borković (Serbia/Croatia)

Filmlab AI $10,000 In Services Award
New Life – Goran Dević (Croatia)

Brijuni Riviera €6,000 Cash Award
Mom’s Alive Today – Josip Lukić (Croatia/Serbia/Kosovo)

Script Your Hit

Croatian Audiovisual Centre and Blitz Distribution €10,000 Cash Award
Wild Card – Nikola Kuprešanin (Croatia)

Make the Scene – Comedy Edition

United Media €5,000 Cash Award
Representative – Ivan Veljača (Croatia)

Vladimir Tagić and Goran Stanković Mentorship Award
Unhinged – Lora Džolić, Jana Bjelica (Serbia)