The screening of the feature film South Wind on Friday, September 12th, and the Award Ceremony on Saturday, September 13th, closed the anniversary editions of the 30th Youth Film Festival and the 18th Four River Film Festival, organized by the Croatian Film Association and Cinema Club Karlovac, co-organized by the Edison Cinema.
The Grand Prix of the Festivals was won by the fiction film Mordros, while the Audience Award went to the film The Tortoise and the Stairs. The Yellow Flag Award, which is awarded to a film that most successfully condemns violence with its topic and story, went to the film Why Me?.
The expert jury (Čejen Černić Čanak, Jude Chehab, Luka Mavretić) gave out the following awards to the best films of the 30th Youth Film Festival:
- Best Animated Film: Am I Supposed to Apologize – Dubrava School of Animated Film, Zagreb, Croatia
- Best Documentary Film: Postal Hero – Corina Kovačić, Palovec, Croatia
- Best Fiction Film: Killing Marko – Blank_film incubator, Zagreb, Croatia
- Best Freestyle Film: I Hear His Breathing – Matija Barić, Klis, Croatia
- Special Mention for Best Documentary: A Romantic Fraud – DOKUart Bjelovar Documentary workshop, Bjelovar, Croatia
In the international competition of the 18th Four River Film Festival, the awards went to:
- Best Animated Film: Sunrise Falling – The Buckley School, the United States of America
- Best Documentary Film: Why Me? – Polina Dimitrova Dincheva, Bulgaria
- Best Fiction Film: Tur De Žur – Philological high school, Serbia
- Best Freestyle Film: Red Reverie – Fresh Film Festival, Ireland
The Youth Jury, which this year consisted of film lovers from Croatia and Italy (Nicola Bottiglieri, Andrea Brancaccio, Gabriella Casciello, Mario Marcello Cesaro, Giulia Mancino, Ela Rastić, Helena Šarić, Lovro Popović, Krešimir Čulić), gave out the following awards:
- Best Actor(s): Vukašin Đorđević, Damjan Sopić, Mihailo Atanasijević – Tur De Žur, Philological high school, Serbia
- Best Actress: Dunja Mikić – Where the Sistaz At?, Uma Zuban, Serbia
- Best Directing: Tim Veremieienko – LV14 Sula Lightship, Boomsatsuma college, the United Kingdom
- Best Screenplay: a group of authors – 5 Seconds, Zvane Črnja High School, Rovinj, Croatia
- Best Cinematography: Yuli Freed – Mordros, Noah Berridge, the United Kingdom
- Best Editing: a group of authors – Red Reverie, Fresh Film Festival, Ireland
- Special mention for Best Screenplay: Doodles, Liza Litvinova, Nika Nikolaeva, S. A. Gerasimov All-Russian State University of Cinematography VGIK, Russian Federation
This year’s editions of the Festivals received 1,622 film submissions, 64 of which were included in the competition program. The Award Ceremony was held at the Edison Cinema, as well as online, and all films from the competition programs of the Festivals will be available to watch online at this link: https://frff.com.hr/screening-schedule-en/
The festival is supported by: the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the Croatian Association of Technical Culture, the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth, Karlovac County, City of Karlovac, the “Kultura nova” Foundation, the Tourist Board of the City of Karlovac, the Technical Culture Community of the Karlovac County, and Turbing d.o.o.
