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ZAGREBDOX 2020 Awards

Froth and Acasă – My Home snatch the Big Stamps at the ZagrebDox Special Edition

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- Ilya Povolotskiy’s documentary has received the top prize in the International Competition, while Radu Ciorniciuc was the winner in the Regional Competition

Froth and Acasă – My Home snatch the Big Stamps at the ZagrebDox Special Edition
Froth by Ilya Povolotskiy (left) and Acasă – My Home by Radu Ciorniciuc

The 16th International Documentary Film Festival ZagrebDox was originally scheduled to run from 15-22 March (see the news), but the pandemic forced the festival to be postponed. A Special Edition of ZagrebDox therefore ran from 4-11 October at the SC Cinema and &TD Theatre of the Student Centre in Zagreb, where 50 documentaries from the official sections were screened to the audience. The festival also announced its winners during an online awards ceremony on Saturday 10 October.

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The International Competition jury, comprising award-winning Croatian documentary filmmaker Goran Dević, Slovenian director, producer, artistic director and Makedox programmer Petra Seliškar, and Czech director and photographer Anna Kryvenko, handed the main prize, the Big Stamp, to Froth by Russian first-time director Ilya Povolotskiy. The jury was “attracted by the minimalistic portrayal of an isolated community in the direct film tradition. The director managed to discover the place and its history in today’s Murmansk.” The jury’s Special Mention was presented to Exemplary Behaviour [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Audrius Mickevičius and Nerijus Milerius, for “an exceptional and dramatic personal approach to saying goodbye, collective revenge and systematic punishment, turning a real-life story into cinematic meditation”.

In the Regional Competition, the Big Stamp went to Romanian debutant director Radu Ciorniciuc for his film Acasă - My Home [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Ciorniciuc
film profile
]
. The regional jury, consisting of Croatian journalist and editor Dean Šoša, Italian set designer and director Valentina Primavera (last year’s winner in this section), and film producer and artistic director of the Trieste Film Festival Nicoletta Romeo, described it as “a sober portrayal of the troubles of the oppressed class without any embellishment, rhetoric or moral judgement”. The film also received the FIPRESCI Award. The Croatian medium-length film One of Us [+see also:
trailer
interview: Djuro Gavran
film profile
]
by Đuro Gavran received the jury’s Special Mention, as they deemed it “a coming-of-age story about monsters from the past and a new, wiser outlook on life”.

The winners of the Big Stamps were also acknowledged by the Young Jury, which consisted of Dutch director and producer John Appel, Belgrade-based editor, director and screenwriter Jelena Maksimović, and Mediterranean Film Festival Split director and Cinema Network president Alen Munitić, who bestowed the Small Stamp for Best Film by an Author Under 35 Years of Age upon Acasă - My Home, while the Special Mention went to Froth.

In the Movies That Matter Competition, for films that promote human rights, last year’s winner, Hungarian director Dorottya Zurbó, along with activists Marinella Matejčić and Mladen Majetić, awarded the main prize to Advocate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rachel Leah Jones, Lea Tsemel
film profile
]
by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche for “focusing on the decade-long persistence of the small but important sprout of humanity and empathy towards Palestinians in militant Israeli society”. The two Special Mentions in this category went to The Euphoria of Being [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Réka Szabó and Sunless Shadows [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Mehrdad Oskouei.

The My Generation Award, given out each year by ZagrebDox director Nenad Puhovski to a film by an auteur from his generation, went to Citizen K [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alex Gibney
film profile
]
by US Oscar winner Alex Gibney. Finally, the Audience Award went to the Croatian doc Nun of Your Business, directed by Ivana Marinić Kragić.

Here is the complete list of winners at the ZagrebDox International Documentary Festival Special Edition:

International Competition

Big Stamp
Froth - Ilya Povolotskiy (Russia/Qatar)
Special Mention
Exemplary Behaviour [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Audrius Mickevičius, Nerijus Milerius (Lithuania/Slovenia/Bulgaria/Italy)

Regional Competition

Big Stamp
Acasă - My Home [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Ciorniciuc
film profile
]
- Radu Ciorniciuc (Romania/Finland/Germany)
Special Mention
One of Us [+see also:
trailer
interview: Djuro Gavran
film profile
]
- Đuro Gavran (Croatia)

Young Jury

Small Stamp
Acasă - My Home - Radu Ciorniciuc
Special Mention
Froth - Ilya Povolotskiy

Movies That Matter Award
Advocate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rachel Leah Jones, Lea Tsemel
film profile
]
- Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaiche (Israel/Canada/Switzerland)
Special Mentions
The Euphoria of Being [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Réka Szabó (Hungary)
Sunless Shadows [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Mehrdad Oskouei (Iran/Norway)

FIPRESCI Award
Acasă - My Home - Radu Ciorniciuc

My Generation Award
Citizen K [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alex Gibney
film profile
]
- Alex Gibney (UK/USA)

Audience Award
Nun of Your Business - Ivana Marinić Kragić (Croatia)

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