The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival closed with the world premiere of film May Labour Day by Pjer Žalica. Safe Place by Croatian director Juraj Lerotić won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film along with Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor for Juraj Lerotić. A traumatic event, a sudden suicide attempt, tears the fabric of a family of three in the film inspired by personal experience of the director, Jurja Lerotić, who also won the Best Actor prize for playing the main role in the film.
Other top prize Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Film went to Museum of the Revolution by Srđan Keča. Meant to “safeguard the truth” about the Yugoslav people, the the 1961 plan to build a grand museum in Belgrade never went beyond the construction of the basement. The derelict building now tells a very different story than that envisioned by the initiators sixty years ago.
Complete list of winners of 28th Sarajevo Film Festival
COMPETITION PROGRAM – FEATURE FILM
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST FEATURE FILM
SAFE PLACE
Croatia
Director: Juraj Lerotić
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DIRECTOR
Maryina Er Gorbach, KLONDIKE
Ukraine, Türkiye
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTRESS
Vicky Krieps, CORSAGE
Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, France
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTOR
Juraj Lerotić, SAFE PLACE
Croatia
COMPETITION PROGRAM – DOCUMENTARY FILM
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
MUSEUM OF THE REVOLUTION
Serbia, Croatia, Czech Republic
Director: Srđan Keča
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM
WE, … COMPOSITION
Kosovo, Germany
Director: Visar Jusufi
HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD
BIGGER THAN TRAUMA
Croatia
Director: Vedrana Pribačić
Best film of the Competition Programme – Documentary Film dealing with the subject of human rights.
SPECIAL JURY AWARD
FRAGILE MEMORY
Ukraine, Slovakia
Director: Igor Ivanko
SPECIAL JURY MENTION (for short documentary film)
BABAJANJA
Croatia
Director: Ante Zlatko Stolica
COMPETITION PROGRAM – SHORT FILM
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT FILM – Academy Award® qualifying
AMOK
Hungary, Romania
Director: Balázs Turai
SPECIAL JURY MENTION
5PM SEASIDE
Austria, Greece
Director: Valentin Stejskal
COMPETITION PROGRAM – STUDENT FILM:
HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST STUDENT FILM
IT’S NOT COLD FOR MOSQUITOES
Croatia
Director: Josip Lukić, Klara Šovagović
SPECIAL AWARD FOR PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY
AFTERSUN
United Kingdom, United States
Director: Charlotte Wells
HONORARY HEART OF SARAJEVO AWARDS
Jesse Eisenberg, actor, director, playwright and author
Sergei Loznitsa, director, producer
Mads Mikkelsen, actor (Mikkelsen received this recognition at the 26th Sarajevo Film Festival, 2020, but could not attend in person on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.)
Ruben Östlund, director
Paul Joseph Schrader, director, screenwriter
The Award is given in recognition of an exceptional contribution to art of film.