Awards and Closing Ceremony
The final day of the Tenth International Film and Music Festival Küstendorf wrapped up with a closing ceremony held at the Damned Yard theatre in Mećavnik.
Folklore ensemble Svetozar Marković from Kragujevac opened the ceremony with their performance.
Professor Emir Kusturica then presented the diplomas to the participants of the Festival. The juries were then welcomed on stage to present the Festival awards – Golden, Silver and Bronze Eggs and Vilko Filač Award.
Professor Emir Kusturica introduced a new award at the Festival – Award for Most Poetic Film, which went to the Bulgarian director Nikolay Todorov for the film Before I Sleep. He also mentioned two other films from the competition programme that left a very strong impression on him – Freeze by Nelicia Low and Frontier, Bloody Frontier by Saša Karanović.
Nikola Ležaić, jury member, first awarded the Special Jury Award to the film The Silence by Ali Asgari and Farnoosh Samadi.
Vilko Filač Award for best cinematography, decided by Michel Amathieu and István Borbás, was given to Andrei Maika for the film The First. In his reasoning behind the award, István Borbás said that this was “a film where the cinematography gives the best harmony between visuals and the message of the film. A film which has visual poetry. A work that dispenses of artificial attitudes and shows very strong technical knowledge.”
Finally, the Festival jury, including Geling Yan, jury president, and Christian Valsamidis and Nikola Ležaić as members, awarded the Golden, Silver and Bronze Eggs. Nikola Ležaić also called the name of the Bronze Egg winner – Matteo Gariglio for En la Boca, saying that it was “always playing on the thin line between fiction and documentary, with an incredible attention to detail.”
Geling Yan, jury president, awarded Silver Egg to Tone Ottille for Lulu IRL, saying that “its success lies in depicting the lonely and defiant heart of a young girl hunting in an extra dimension of reality, the Internet, for love and sympathy that our three-dimensional universe has failed to produce.
The Golden Egg went to Michael Alalu for The Thorn, and the jury president said that “with its flawless narration and unique character development, The Thorn makes it possible for us to understand the absurdity and beauty of human feelings.”
Finally, Professor Emir Kusturica announced the closing of the Festival.
