ZagrebDox
Awards were given out at ZagrebDOX. The regional awards are the ones to be noticed signaling strongly the current high quality. All 3 films have or will have a well deserved international recognition. The two first have been written about on filmkommentaren.dk. Keep an eye on your local festival or tv programme. Here folllows the jury’s motivation texts:
Big Stamp
The Caviar Connection, Dragan Nikolić: A wonderful mixture of observational document
ary and creative authorship. It shows the inevitable disappearing world of traditional fishing through the colorful, character driven story of one family. The filmpulls us so fully into this world, that we can’t help but have warmth for these flawed characters, find humor in their ordinary situations, and feel compassion for their struggles. ( Ylen yhteistuotanto, Sari Volanen from Uusi Kino as comm editor)
Jury Special Mentions
Cash & Marry, Atanas Georgiev: Adresses the very relevant theme of illegal immigration through a highly personal and entertaining approach. Sure to please crowds around the globe, the film succeeds in touching this thorny subject in a way that will be revealing and thought-provoking for audiences from both sides of this divide.
21st Second, Željko Mirković: A refreshing look at the humanity behind the “hero” protagonist, who faces the dilemmas of rebuilding his life, and ultimately discovers the beauty of a second chance at being a good father.
Jury: Casey Cooper Johnson, Irena Taskovski, producer, Silvestar Kolbas, director of photography.
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It took some time for director Atanas Georgiev (Macedonia), his producer Sinisha Juricic (Croatia) and coproducer Ralph Wiser (Austria) to make and finish ”Cash and Marry”, which will be a hit at festivals in the coming year. As it very rightfully was at the world premiere at ZagrebDOX where it was pitched as project 3 years before. Totally full house, people standing in the corridor, a super audience for this film's first screening.
But it was worth waiting for. It is a provocative, stylistically sometimes messy and anarchistic, charming, funny, clever, touching and so very much actual document about Europe today exemplified by the hunt for a bride in Vienna that performs the director himself – for the film and for a passport that can make him stay in the European Union.
Next screening is at the Diagonale in Graz, Austria to be followed by a screening at Visions du Réel in Nyon... and so on and so forth. ORF commissioning editor Franz Grabner expects a big audence, when he shows it on television and with Austrian distributor Autlook on board it must be possible to make a strong world distribution of this film to festivals and tv stations.
I had the privilege to see the development of a film that was handled creatively and competently by a young director and his team, including first of all Sinisha Juricic from Nukleus in Zagreb. Congratulations.
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