The Festival Internacional De Cine De GIJÓN, also known as FICXixon in Spain, is a wonderful festival in Spain that this year celebrated its golden jubilee, or 50th anniversary. On November 16-24, 2012, the festival celebrated in a suitably grand manner, starting with a red carpet event.

The festival opened with Spanish actress Leticia Dolera, and during the opening ceremony, the famous Asturian Spanish casting director Luis San Narciso was awarded the Nacho Martínez Award for his special achievements. Narciso found casts for such films as By My Side Again (Gracia Querejeta, 1999), The Sea Inside (Alejandro Amenábar, 2004), Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006) and The Counselor (Ridley Scott, 2012).

The festival officially opened with the Romanian film Beyond the Hills (Dupa Delauri) by Christian Mungui and closed with an American independent filmmaker and Slamdance co-founder Dan Mirvish with his film Between Us. The festival highlighted the special role of cinema as a cultural and social influencer.

The festival involved different sections, or programming tracks.  As usual, the Official Section was dedicated to drama;  the section ANIMAFICX was for animation; the sections Rellumes, Enfants Terrible, Géneros Mutantes and La Crueldad Francesa were for horror films; the section Esbilla was reserved for Spanish film and Spanish Shorts; and the section Llendes was for Documentary Film; and there were specialized sections for retrospectives on the work of Iranian filmmaker Amir Naderi, Slovak filmmaker Juraj Jakubisko and Spanish-Canadian filmmaker Bruno Lázaro.

In addition to films from different countries and cultures, the Gijon International Film Festival cultures included The Shadow Dancer, directed by James Marsh, and four independent American films, including Mirvish’s Between Us, a kind of  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf  film and a pretty dark story investigating friendships and what lies beneath them. Also shown were Todd Luise’s Hello, I Must Be Going, Adam Leon’s Gimme the Loot and Marshall Lewy’s California Solo, starring the always good Robert Carlyle.

PREMIO AL MEJOR DIRECTOR or the Best Director Award went to a Korean film, Barbie, directed by Lee Sang-Woo. The film depicted illegal child trafficking in the era of globalization.

The Franco-Afghan film The Patience Stone won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Young Jury Prize, as well as Best Actress (Golshifteh Farahani), and the Israeli film Epilogue nabbed Best Actor (Yosef Carmon) and Best Screenplay (written by the film’s director, Amir Manor).

The Bosnian film Children of Sarajevo won Best Production Design (Best Art Direction), and Beyond The Hills, directed by Romanian film director Cristian Mungiu, won the Jury Special Prize. 

The International Jury of the ANIMAFICX Section of The 50th Gijón International Film Festival (consisting of Raúl García, Chelo Loureiro, Pablo Llorens Serrano and Luis da Matta) awarded the PREMIO ANIMAFICX or ANIMAFICX Prize to the film Le chat du rabbin by Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux, as well as announcing a few Special Mentions. 

For more awards to review and read about the festival, visit the official site: www.en.fic.gijon.es

Dan Mirvish and Atiq Rahimi

The 2011 Festival International Du Film D’Animation in Annecy, France, included exclusive screenings of studio short films by leading American studios. The entire festival was dedicated to the American animation studio industry. The festival program covered a variety of topics, ranging from animation to production and computer graphics as well as the presentation of 18 special awards, also known as Crystals. The selection of films included 10 feature films, 42 short films, 59 graduation films and 71 TV and commissioned films, TV series and specials.

The Festival International Du Film D’Animation in Annecy is the biggest animation festival in Europe and covers the global animation industry, along with the MIFA industry meeting every year.France is the European leader in terms of investment in the animation industry.

There were several moments which made the 35th edition of the Festival in Annecy particularly special. Among them were world-exclusive previews of some of the latest short films from Pixar (“La Luna”), Disney (“The Ballad of Nessie”) and Warner Bros. (“CoyoteFalls” and “Rabid Rider”). Other highlights included the awards ceremony, during which there was an announcement about the production of some new Looney Tunes by the Warner Studios, as well as an appearance by Leiji Matsumoto, the legendary creator of “Captain Harlock.” For me, the most exciting moment was the glorious “Coyote Falls,” about a Coyote’s epic quest to capture the Road Runner, in 3-D. In addition, the Japanese dramatic story of a soul reborn in the body of a suicidal teenager, “Colorful,” won two Crystal Awards.

As a FIPRESCI jury member, I felt there was a wonderful variety of short films in the competition for the FIPRESCI Award. Most support went to a French short, Patrick Jean’s “Pixels,” a film already well-known in France. The short film competition at Annecy 2011 featured high-quality animation with a depth of subject and content. The FIPRESCI Award this year went to “Luminaris (Luminaris)”, directed by Juan Pablo Zaramella, the acclaimed illustrator and graphic artist from Argentina. “Luminaris (Luminaris)” features an ordinary human in robotics-controlled world who brings light to life with humor and irony. This film also won the Prix du Public.

Jury members on-stage during closing ceremonies

Isola

Will Slovenian Cinematography Survive?

To understand the film industry of a country, it requires defining certain concepts of nation and statehood, and placing them in a context which is historical, political, and geographical. It also requires knowledge of history and cinema history in much wider sense. For the last ten years, film critics from Slovenia have announced a genuine crises their small domestic filmmaking industry.

For years, there have been rumors about the bad quality of Slovenian film, about the fading of Slovenian cinematography. Nevertheless, this small former Yugoslavian film industry still has potential; the pulse might be weak, but it still beats.

Proof came in the form of the annual International Film Festival in Isola (a.k.a the Kino Otok — Isola Cinema Festival) on the coast of Slovenia. As film lovers and filmmakers converged on the city, even a post-civil-war climate of political malaise, with war criminals being arrested and an economic crises threatening, it seems that Slovenian film may not be in such a bad shape and even may, with a little help, weather the storm in the Balkans. From innovative European films to big-budget movies, there were films to suit different tastes.  Evening screenings took place in a charming little square in Isola’s Old Town, with various tracks focusing on unknown and unexplored cinematography with new aesthetics — in other words, the poetics of film — focusing on African, Asian and Latin American films.

The Kino Otok — Isola Cinema Festival was founded in 2004 with the help of the IFFI International Film Festival in Innsbruck, Austria, which sends student volunteers from the University of Innsbrook to assist. Helmut Groschup, the director of the Innsbrook Film Festival, serves on the festival board, along with Slovenian film director Vlado Škafal and other notable members of the Balkan film community. Škafal’s latest film, Father, is not a classic feature film but discusses, according to Škafal, the material of reality. Father has screened at several European film festivals.

Jan Cvitkovic

Another Slovenian filmmaker who was important both to this festival and to Slovenian cinematography is, without any doubt, Jan Cvitkovic. Just think of this: what is art in a post-socialism society but the art of crisis, entropy, provocation and cynicism? All of these can be found in the work of Jan Cvitkovic (especially if we talk about provocation and cynicism on film). To the American public, this archeologist-become-filmmaker is best known for his 2005 film Gravehopping (Odgrobadogroba), which screened at multiple U.S. film festivals and won some international awards, so it is just possible that you have seen it somewhere. Gravehopping deals with a deaf-mute woman, S&M sex, brass music, a bizarre death, and the oddness of local funerals in a story truly inspired by the collective unconsciousness of Slav cinematography. The film is a commentary on auto-destruction, told through the narrative poetry of a gallery of characters worthy of Federico Fellini. It is very similar to the old Yugoslavian films of so-called black wave of the ‘70s, made during the communist period. Black wave films in former Yugoslavia were films prohibited by the communist government, due to the content of films which railed against the communist dogma.

Cvitković is currently shooting a new film called Arheo.  

Isola Film Festival Today

From June 8 to 12, the Kino Otok – Isola Cinema featured a wide selection of films along with educational programs. Cinephiles could celebrate film at the seaside in this international festival of African, Asian, Latin American and Eastern European cinema. Films were screened at the Odeon Art Cinema, Culture Hall and, of course, the cinema under the stars: the Otok Open-air Cinema at Manzioli Square. Every evening, the screenings took place under the starry sky, accompanied by the lively program Video on the Beach, which presented the works of non-yet-established and Slovenian filmmakers.

The official film programs included the Harvest (competition program of the festival, shown in the open air cinema on the Manzioli square), Masters (selection of the latest films by established masters of cinematography of “four continents”), Friends (film choices of the international program committee members), Special Occasion (complementary program of the competition section) and New Shores (retrospectives of national or continental cinematography in the cooperation of Slovenian Cinematography.)  One of the most attractive part of the festival was the Lighthouse Cinema, which took place on a beautiful Izola beach next to the town’s lighthouse, offering night projections in an unofficial program. At night participants could visit Night Beach for festival clubbing with an open program, a perfect gathering point at the end of the day.

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Directed by Ben and Joshua Safdie
Starring: Ronald Bronstein, Sage Ranaldo, Frey Ranaldo,
Abel Ferrara, Lee Ranaldo

According to FIPRESCI Jury Zoran Gojić, Špela Barlič and Radmila Djurica of the 20^th Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFE) in Slovenia, the jurors made up their mind pretty fast to award the International Federation of Film Critics Award American to Go Get Some Rosemary, directed by Ben and Josh Safdie. “Josh and Ben Safdie brothers tell a simple story about a complicated family — which is their own. Inspired by the New York independent film tradition, it captures the hectic patchwork family life. It’s a comical drama about a man in between extremes and his confused sons. A warm-hearted look back without anger,” the jury stated.

A New York independent film production, Go Get Some Rosemary is a powerful drama about a New York man torn between fatherhood and immaturity.  With a skillful use of atmosphere, the film tells the story about this irresponsible yet charismatic father. Go Get Some Rosemary is a realistic portrait of life in the big city and its exhausting, emotional demands.

The film, faithful to the New York-indie tradition of filmmaking, features strong acting by Abel Ferrara and Lee Ranaldo from the New York band Sonic Youth. Ranaldo’s children, Sage and Frey, deserve special mention for their important roles in the movie, as well as the lead, Ronald Bronstein (who previously directed and appeared in 2009’s Round Town Girls and 2007’s Frownland). 

Rating: **** (4 out of 4 stars)

Disclosure: The author received a complimentary ticket to this film as a member of the festival jury.

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Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Isaach De Bankolé, Luis Tosar, John Hurt

The brand-new Jim Jarmusch film The Limits of Control was screened at the 20^th annual Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFE)  in Slovenia.

One of the truly independent American film directors, Jim Jarmusch is an uncanny and charming writer-director (Stranger Than Paradise, Down By Law, Mystery Train, Ghost Dog, and Broken Flowers). This time he headed to Spain to shoot The Limits of Control, his first film shot outside the U.S. “When I was writing the story, Spain kept calling me. I have so many Spanish heroes, from Cervantes to Goya to Buñuel and the Surrealists. It’s an amazing country: shooting in Seville while the orange blossoms were blooming was like being on drugs,” said Jarmush.

A strange, David Lynch-style sluggish thriller, the film was based on an idea Jarmusch had 15 years ago, about “a very quiet, very centered criminal on some sort of mission.” The characters here are on a journey, and the journey is the story.

A French-African actor, Isaach De Bankolé, plays a hit man who goes to Madrid and Seville to meet mysterious contacts, brilliantly played by  Tilda Swinton and John Hurt, who lead him to an equally mysterious American, played by Bill Murray. In his lead role, De Bankolé is not very verbal, but he expresses things through the tiny details in his face, or gestures. These gestures convey the story and tell the audience lots about the character.

There is a kind of code used in the film, with ideas repeating but slightly differently every time. Jarmush explained that the film is like cubism: a fracturing of perception of the physical properties of an object. He said the film uses that in a way so that a lot of these things are interpretable from different perspectives. Essentially, then, there isn’t one right way to interpret them. Jarmusch’s film can be seen as metaphysically suggestive, with the metaphysical element of the story referring to the limits of political control in the world and to the fact that the world is not what we perceive it to be.

The film references John Boorman’s 1967 thriller, Point Blank, starring Lee Marvin, and based on its visual resemblance, Marvin seems to haunt Jarmusch. Here, Jarmusch isn’t too interested in plot, but he uses storytelling as a way to slideshow perfect frames, from one moment to the next. The soundtrack is spectacular, contributing to the feel.The film is atmospheric, has several levels and features a circular structure, even if the film at the same time is made up of sharply-defined angles. Like its protagonist, it’s kind of ascetic, yet a distinctly modernistic, Jarmuschian work.

Rating: **** (4 out of 4 stars)

Disclosure: The author received a complimentary ticket to view this film as a member of the festival jury.

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The Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFE) is a little festival in Slovenia that has provided a critical view of film for the last 20 years. It reviews the best in international cinema, provides a film retrospective that involves democratic changes in Central and Eastern Europe, and is committed to promoting promising filmmakers, European film, and productions from remote parts of the world, like traditional Peruvian folklore or a baroque film noir from Malaysia or Chile.

The film selection is divided thematically: genre-oriented (Extravagance, Against the Wind, Focus), with insight into national cinematography and worldwide masterpieces (Kings & Queens). The festival section Perspectives, the official competitive section, is reserved for new filmmakers, with films meant to go for Slovenian distribution. The Kings and Queens section features award-winning contemporary films, and World Film Panorama focuses on the front-runners of five continents, while Extravaganza features late-night cinema of “daring idiosyncratic artists that are addressing sensual topics in film.” The film retrospective is dedicated to social changes in the former socialistic countries, through a representative selection of a contemporary filmmaker, this time an overview of Austrian film director Michael Haneke and his provocative approach to filmmaking.

LIFFE ended with a gala ceremony.

     Simon Popek, director of LIFFE, and
Neil Young, Hollywood reporter and festival jurist

The Kingfisher Award, awarded by the international jury Dana Linssen, Elma Tataragić, and Martin Turk, went to The Blacks, a Croatian film directed by Zvonimir Jurić and Goran Dević, honored for being “courageous in its portrayal of a war situation which not only recalls the war outside, but also confronts us with the enemy within every human being that is perhaps the biggest threat to humanity. Starting from a very realistic situation, the film slowly turns into a surrealistic nightmare. For expressive acting, a convincing story and inventive directing…” Special Mention went to Politist, Adjectiv, directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, “for its perfect aesthetic, storytelling, directing of the actors, social engagement and philosophical insightfulness.” 

The LIFFE Best Short Film Award (awarded by the international jury of Iva Krajnc, Hanna Preuss, and Neil Young) went to “Missing” by Jochem de Vries from the Netherlands. The judges said, “The winning film explores childhood and family with a directness and simplicity that allow us to glimpse apparently ordinary events which say much about the people concerned, their milieu, and their society. Free of inherent judgment or insinuation, its content is left fully open to interpretation of the viewer. It is executed with the economy and confidence that mark the best work in the short-film format.” The Special Mention went to the Australian film “The Ground Beneath” by Rene Hernandez.

The Dragon Award went to young Canadian director Xavier Dolan for the film “I Killed My Mother,” a film shot in  French-speaking Canada. The FIPRESCI Award went to the American film directed by Ben and Josh Safdie, Go Get Some Rosemary.

    Josh and Ben Safdie with Ron Bronstein

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Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Anamaria Marinca

Five Minutes of Heaven, which was shown at the Sarajevo Film Festival, focuses on themes familiar to the countries of this region. Bosnian people can definitely relate to a story of reconciliation between two individuals on opposite sides. This film deals with harsh, dark emotions, depicting the true nature of humanity.

One of the film’s actors, James Nesbitt, along with screenwriter Guy Hilbert and director Oliver Hirschbiegel, spent a couple days at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Five Minutes of Heaven is based on a true story: In October 1975, in a small town in Northern Ireland, a young Protestant, Alistair Little, shot and killed Jim Griffin, a Catholic. Little went to jail for 12 years for his crime, making a new commitment to bring peace among the youth who were being seduced by terrorists in Northern Ireland. He, however, would never meet Joe Griffin, the young brother who witnessed the killing.

The film questions what might have happened if the two men had met and discussed their feelings about the murder. In the movie, they are asked to shake hands in front of the cameras for a television program, with hopes that could bring about reconciliation. Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt are superb as Little and Griffin.

Five Minutes of Heaven was directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, the German filmmaker who envisioned Hitler’s bunker in the film Downfall. He exercises similar techniques here, mixing the real with the imaginary. Hirschbiegel’s film benefits from the clever screenwriter Guy Hibbert, as well as from close collaboration with the real Griffin and Little.  The film is the portrait of a process: the hatred and the trauma that served as a foundation for the violence, taking years and years to process and treat.

Hibbert talked about the filmmaking process: “There really was a television show which tried to bring together a Protestant from Northern Island, today a civil activist, and the brother of his victim. The script-writing process was long, because the only two people who could change it were these men. They however, have never met in real life. Yet, I felt a moral obligation to create a fictional possibility of such an event. That was difficult, because we spent four weeks negotiating the last four sentences in the film with the two of them.” 

In real life, Joe Griffin (the brother of victim) and Alistair Little (the killer) have never seen each other again. Griffin attended the premier of the film in Belfast and Little in Dublin. “I asked them what would happen if they meet. Joe said he would pull a knife, and Alistair said he would try not to defend himself, ” said Hibbert.

Part of this brilliant film’s success may arise from the fact that it was directed by a foreigner, an outsider, who could be entirely objective. The film does not take sides: here, the killer and the victim are both heroes. It’s a responsible drama that aims, through creative consultation, to capture something of Northern Ireland and its history. The drama challenges viewers to think about the legacy of our past.

Rating: **** (4 out of 4 stars)

Disclosure: The author received a complimentary ticket to view this movie as a member of the press.

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Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Penelope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez

After a screening at the Cannes Film Festival, the great Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces (Los abrazos rotos), was also shown on the Sarajevo Film Festival. According to many critics, the film pays homage to Ingmar Bergman, while others have compared Broken Embraces to the simplicity of Rossellini’s Voyage to Italy. However, Broken Embraces still carries echoes of  Almodóvar’s previous work, who is now in his filmmaking maturity. A distinctive stylist, Aldomóvar’s new film is another excellent work.

The film is set in Madrid, where Mateo (Lluis Homar), a former film director who is now a screenwriter, is trying to get over a tragic past involving Lena (Penelope Cruz),who is an actress and the mistress of Martel (Jose Luis Gomez), a powerful millionaire. Broken Embraces, like his film Volver, deals with the past. In his film, Almodóvar depicts Madrid’s nightlife of the ’70s, which grew in reaction to the repressive era of Franco. The characters share old secrets in order to move on in their present lives. Eventually, through this nostalgia, the characters find solutions.

Cruz is perfectly cast in her role. Almodóvar explained, “She has all those characters inside her. She’s very conscious of her Audrey Hepburn looks, but in that same body, she can look like Sophia Loren did in the 50s — as she showed in Volver. And in the scene where she wears a white wig, she reminds me absolutely of the desolation of beauty in Marilyn Monroe. Penelope was tired that day. She was smiling like a model, but her eyes were sad and tired. I feel she is the perfect material that I can shape into all the different women I can imagine.” 

The Sarajevo Film Festival welcomed Lluis Homar and Tamar Novas at the film’s festival screening. Novas said, “Almodóvar is an institution, a brand, a quality which in Spain guarantees full cinemas whenever he makes a new film. I think if we had a dozen Almodóvars in Spain, that the crisis in our cinematography would be overcome… He made me panic and made me feel under the pressure, let alone working with actors such as Homar and Penelope Cruz. The initial shock and panic made me prepare to the best of my ability, which resulted in one of the most beautiful experiences in my career.“

Homar, a well-known Spanish actor, talked about the fascination of the story they have told: “At moments, it is a comedy, which, in its essence is, in fact, is a tragedy one of the most beautiful stories in the telling of which I have participated as an actor.”

This mysterious, complex, soft melodrama about a love affair clearly bears Almodovar’s signature.

Rating: **** (4 out of 4 stars)

Disclosure: The author received a complimentary ticket to view this movie as a member of the press.

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One of the Croatian candidates for an Oscar award, the film Donkey, directed by Antonio Nuić, had already won a couple of awards at the Pula Film Festival when it opened the Sarajevo Film Festival.  

The film is set in a village, virtually in the middle of nowhere, in Herzegovina. It tells the story of the relationship between a father and a son. Boro, an angry man, is driving his wife, Jasna, and son, Luka, from Zagreb to his home village of Drinovci, after seven years. They are visiting Boro’s brother Pero, who although paralyzed, escaped from Sarajevo. Boro constantly fights with his wife, ignores his son and won’t speak to his father, Pasko, because he blames him for mother’s death. Lake Krenica in the village is a haunted place with many souls drowning there every year.

The film depicts the irrational and dark side of Herzegovina men. Speaking about darkness, during World War II, some Catholic Croats from Herzegovina were among the most vicious Nazi killers in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At times very religious and nationalistic, in some other cases, such men are stubborn in a positive way. Donkey, however does not address politics of the extreme nationalism of Croats coming from Herzegovina; instead, this film talks about the extremely hard mentality of these men. In general, Nuić in his films, very poetically and successfully, depicts the mentality of people from his homeland, Bosnia or Herzegovina.

There is an historical aspect to the film. It takes place during the crucial period of the latest civil war in Bosnia, during the war operation called Storm in 1995. The Storm was an organized war operation by the Croatian Army against the Serb ethnic population, who were forced to leave their native territory, because Tudjman (the right-leaning late president of Croatia) wanted to clear that territory of Serbs. This operation was crucial because it was supposed to end the war in Croatia (and of course it didn’t). Today, it is interpreted differently by both sides of the conflict (the Serbs and the Croats from Croatia).

“Donkey“ is the expression for a character trait of men in Herzegovina, who are stubborn and strange. The male protagonists in the film are vicious, macho and cruel, just like the land they inhabit. All male characters here are the donkey, while the actual animal donkey here is a good friend to them all. Mute, with kind, patient eyes, always listening, this animal becomes a symbol of optimism and change.

It is possible that film director Nuić wanted to depict family conflicts juxtaposed with historical events and to depict, with a certain authenticity, the Herzegovina people and their temperament.

Rating: *** (3 out of 4 stars)

Disclosure: The author received a complimentary ticket to view this movie as a member of the press.

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The 15th Sarajevo Film Festival this year featured visits of such important guests as Mickey Rourke, Gillian Anderson, James Nesbitt, Kerry Fox, Tamar Novas and more. This important regional festival once again created a place to promote film, regional and international cinematography, to affirm young and new filmmakers, and to establish a professional platform as a valid film resource.

The festival opened with The Tales From The Golden Age, directed by Cristian Mungiu at the National Theatre, and the national Competition Program opened with the Croatian film Donkey, directed by Antonio Nuić, which had already received three Golden Arenas at the Pula Film Festival and was a Croatian candidate for an Oscar nomination. The Sarajevo Film Festival this year screened a  number of international and regional premiers. Panorama selector Howard Feinstein opened the Panorama Program with The Fly, a film by Russian director Vladimir Kot.

The festival aims to recognize the talents of filmmakers, and the regional production division supports new Eastern European film productions. According to the jury, the Best Feature Film of the Competition Program was Ordinary People, directed by Serbian director Vladimir Perišić. The jury said that the film “represents ordinary people as a pure moment of cinema, explores the universal pattern of abuse of male youth through the military structure.”  The effect of the Serbian civil war is a familiar subject onscreen and still a relevant one. This movie portrays a soldier’s initiation into military killing.

The Special Jury Award went to Dogtooth (Kynodontas), directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. The jury said, “Dogtooth  depicts in a metaphorical way, with elements of clinical humor, how the traditional family structure had to retreat into a fortress of control and safety, inflicting its members with psychological damage that resonates with us all.”

The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress went to Aggeliki Papoulia and Mary Tsoni from Dogtooth. The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor went to Relja Popović of Ordinary People.

In the competition program for short film, The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Film went to the film Party, directed by Dalibor Matanić of Croatia.

Special Jury Mentions went to Ciao Mama, directed by Goran Odvorčić, Croatia, and to The History of Aviation (A REPÜLÉS TÖRTÉNETE), directed by Balint Kenyeres, Hungary and France.

In the competition program for documentary film, The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Film went to The Caviar Connection, directed by Dragan Nikolić, Serbia. Special Mention went to Constantin and Elena (CONSTANTIN SI ELENA), directed by Andrei Dascalescu in Romania. The Human Rights Award went to Heated Blood, directed by Marko Mamuzić, Serbia.

      Mickey Rourke at Sarajevo Film Festival

More festival photos

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