Georgian drama “Blackbird” won the main prize of the Sarajevo Film Festival

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, a Georgian drama directed by Helen Naveriani about a 40-year-old independent woman whose new romantic connection sparks an existential awakening, was awarded the top prize for best film at the 2023 Sarajevo International Film Festival. This publication reports Hollywood reporter.

Actress Ekaterina Chavleishvili, who played the title role, also won the award for Best Actress. The Friday night awards ceremony, titled “Heart of Sarajevo”, was the venue for these awards.

The Best Actor award went to debutant Jovan Ginic for his portrayal of a Serbian teenager in The Lost Country directed by Vladimir Perisic. The film tells about the events of the 1990s, when the main character finds himself between student protests against the authoritarian regime of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and loyalty to his mother, who works as a press secretary for the regime.

Ukrainian director Filipp Sotnichenko received an award for independent director for his film “Palisiade”. It is a slow-paced crime drama about two friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist, who investigates a colleague in western Ukraine in 1996, months before Ukraine signed the European Convention on Human Rights.

The festival prize for the best documentary went to the film “Bottles” by Serbian director Nemanja Vojnovic, which tells about marginalized people and a huge dump on the outskirts of Belgrade with unacceptable sanitation conditions. Macedonian filmmaker Kumena Novakova received the award for the film with the strongest impact on human rights issues. This is a painting called “The Silence of Reason”, which is based on archival materials from the Hague Tribunal and reveals how women were used as “weapons” during the Bosnian war.

The prize for the best short film went to the animated film “27 by Flora Anna Buda” about a 27-year-old woman who still lives with her parents and dreams of escaping from the boring everyday life.