The Baltic Gaze programme, which focused on films created in the Baltics, was dominated by documentaries.
Under the Sun, directed by Ukrainian Vitaly Mansky, won the award for Best Film. His documentary portrays the North Korean regime from the inside. Lithuanian Mantas Kvedaravičius won the Best Director award for Mariupolis, his documentary about the people living in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. This is the first time a Lithuanian filmmaker has been awarded at a Kino Pavasaris competition programme.
The Best Actress award went to Trine Dyrholm for her role in the Danish film The Commune. Oleg Maximov won the Best Actor award for the documentary film Don Juan, in which he played himself.
The jury also handed out a Special Mention award to Granny‘s Dancing on the Table by Swedish director Hanna Sköld.
The New Europe – New Names programme, whose goal is to find new directors from Central and Eastern Europe, chose two Best Film winners – “I, Olga Hepnarova” (Czech Republic), directed by Petr Kazda and Tomáš Weinreb, and “Thirst” (Bulgaria), directed by Svetla Tsotsorkova.
Agnieszka Smoczyńska from Poland won the Best Director award for her film “The Lure” and Bulgarian actress Monika Naydenova from “Thirst” was named Best Actress for her first-ever role.
Uliks Fehmiu from Serbia received the Best Actor award for his performance in “Our Everyday Life”.
The films that competed in the New Europe – New Names programme were also judged by the CICAE (International Confederation of Art Cinemas) jury. They awarded the Serbian film “A Good Wife”, directed by Mirjana Karanović.
The Slovakian short “Fear”, directed by Michal Blaško, won the Best Film prize in the Short Film competition programme. Hungarian film “End of Puberty”, directed by Fanni Szilágyi, received the jury’s Special Mention award in this category.
The audience’s favourite feature film at this year’s festival was “Truman”, directed by Spanish Cesc Gay, with festivalgoers naming (Otto), directed by Dutch filmmakers Marieke Blaauw, Joris Oprins and Job Roggeveen, as their favourite short film.