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Jury Awards

Each year the SEEfest Jury pays tribute to outstanding films in multiple competition categories.

2023 Jury Awards

BEST FEATURE
MEN OF DEEDS by Paul Negoescu
Honorable Mention: SONNE by Kurdwin Ayub

BEST DOCUMENTARY
SCENES WITH MY FATHER, by Biserka Šuran
Honorable Mentions: JUVENILE by Jovan Todorović

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN FEATURE FILM
Cinematographer Giorgos Karvelas, SILENCE 6-9
Honorable Mention: Cinematographer Orlin Ruevski, THE GOOD DRIVER

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN DOCUMENTARY FILM
Cinematographer Hirotoshi Takeoka, ADAMIANI
Honorable Mention: Cinematographers Stefan Đorđević and Jovan Todorović, JUVENILE

SHORT ANIMATION
GRANNY’S SEXUAL LIFE by Urška Djukić and Émilie Pigeard
Honorable Mentions: 
THE LEGEND OF GOLDHORN by Lea Vučko
MONEY AND HAPPINESS by Ana Nedeljković and Nikola Majdak Jr

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
THE SCORE by Aleksandra Bilić

BEST SHORT FICTION
CHIATURA by Toby Andris
Special Jury Mentions: 
ON XERXES’ THRONE by Evi Kalogiropoulou
THE EAGLE’S NEST by Milija Šćepanović

MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award
THE GOOD DRIVER by Tonislav Hristov
Honorable Mention: THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD by Teona Strugar-Mitevska

Barco HDR Master LightSteering Color Grade Prize
BEST FEATURE FILM
MEN OF DEEDS by Paul Negoescu
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN FEATURE FILM
SILENCE 6-9 by Christos Passalis, Giorgos Karvelas
AUDIENCE AWARD for Best Documentary
LIGHTS OF SARAJEVO by Srdjan Perkić

AUDIENCE AWARDS
Feature Film: MEN OF DEEDS, by Paul Negoescu
Documentary Film: LIGHTS OF SARAJEVO, by Srdjan Perkić

2022 Jury Awards

Best Feature
MURINA by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović

Honorable Mention
AS FAR AS I CAN WALK
by Stefan Arsenijević

BEST DOCUMENTARY
DIDA, by Nikola Ilić and Corina Schwingruber-Ilić

Honorable Mentions
RECONCILIATION
by Marija Zidar
THE IMAGE MACHINE
by Roland Sejko

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A DOCUMENTARY FILM
Cinematographer Dominique Colin, THE DELTA OF BUCHAREST

Honorable Mention
Cinematographer Latif Hasolli, RECONCILIATION

SHORT ANIMATION
CAN YOU SEE THEM?
By Bruno Razum

Honorable Mention
IRIS by Lucija Bužančić

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
YOU CAN’T AUTOMATE ME
by Katarina Jazbec

Honorable Mention
ANJELA by Vilma Kartalska

BEST SHORT FICTION
PENALTY SHOT
by Rok Biček

Honorable Mentions
 MARKO by Marko Šantić, THE CRIMINALS by Serhat Karaaslan

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A FEATURE FILM
Cinematographer Hélène Louvart, MURINA

Honorable Mention
 Cinematographer Oleksandr Pozdnyakov, BLINDFOLD

MOZAIK BRIDGING THE BORDERS AWARD
AS FAR AS I CAN WALK
by Stefan Arsenijević

Honorable Mention
SUGHRA’S SONS
by Ilgar Najaf

BARCO HDR MASTER LIGHTSTEERING COLOR GRADE PRIZE
AD FAR AS I CAN WALK by Stefan Arsenijević
MURINA by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović
KLONDIKE by Maryna Er Gorbach

AUDIENCE AWARDS
Feature Film
AS FAR AS I CAN WALK
by Stefan Arsenijević
Documentary Film
LOOKING FOR HORSES
by Stefan Pavlović

2021 Jury Awards

BEST FEATURE FILM
Winner: Mare
Director Andrea Štaka

Runner up: Cream
Director: Nóra Lakos

Honorable Mention: So, What’s Freedom?
Director: Andrei Zinca

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – FEATURE FILM
Winner: In the Shadows
Cinematographer: Hayk Kirakosyan

Honorable Mention: Fear
Cinematographer: Emil Christov

BEST SHORT FICTION
Winner: In Between
Director: Ana Pasti

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Winner: Faith & Branko
Director: Catherine Harte

Honorable Mentions:

Glory to the Queen, Line of Life
Directors: Tatia (Tamar) Skhirtladze & Darko Bajić

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – DOCUMENTARY FILM
Winners Ex Aequo: Nun of Your Business, That Other Village
Cinematographers: Ivana Marinić Kragić, & Srđan Kovačević

Honorable Mentions
Sticker, French Cinema
Directors: Georgi M. Unkovski & Galina D. Georgieva

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Winner: Collecting Time
Director: Christos Sagias

Honorable Mention – Shines a Spotlight on an Important Subject in a Compelling Way: This is Right; Zak Life and After
Director: Gevi Dimitrakopoulou

BEST SHORT ANIMATION
Winner: Arka
Director: Natko Stipaničev

Honorable Mentions: Cockpera, Elusiveness
Directors: Kata Gugić & Marija Vulić

2020 Jury Awards

BEST FEATURE FILM GRAND JURY PRIZE
Zana
Directed by: Antoneta Kastrati

BEST DOCUMENTARY ex-aequo Queen Lear
Directed by: Pelin Esmer

Bora, Story About a Wind
Directed by: Bernhard Pötscher

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A FEATURE FILM
Pilate
Cinematographer: Dávid Hartung

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A DOCUMENTARY FILM
Bora, Story About a Wind
Cinematographer: Bernhard Pötscher

BEST SHORT FICTION
The Dude
Directed by: Alexandros Kakaniaris

BEST SHORT DOC
Then Comes the Evening
Directed by: Maja Novaković

BEST SHORT ANIMATION
Passage
Directed by: Igor Ćorić

2019 Jury Awards

BEST FEATURE FILM GRAND JURY PRIZE
Irina (Bulgaria)
Directed by: Nadejda Koseva

SPECIAL JURY MENTION FEATURE FILM
The Delegation (Albania)
Directed by: Bujar Alimani

GoE BRIDGING THE BORDERS AWARD presented by Cinema Without Borders
Crush My Heart
Directed by: Alexandra Makarova

BEST FIRST FEATURE FILM
Irina (Bulgaria)
Directed by: Nadejda Koseva

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Neighbors (Croatia)
Directed by: Tomislav Žaja

SPECIAL JURY MENTION DOCUMENTARY FILM
ReGeneration (Bosnia Herzegovina)
Directed by: Emir Kapetanović

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A FEATURE FILM
Borders, Raindrops (Bosnia Herzegovina)
Cinematographer: Miloš Jaćimović

SPECIAL JURY MENTION FEATURE FILM CINEMATOGRAPHY
Together (Slovenia)
Cinematographer: Marko Kočevar

SPECIAL JURY MENTION FEATURE FILM CINEMATOGRAPHY
Deep Cuts (Croatia)
Cinematographer: Radislav Jovanov Gonzo, Dubravka Kurobasa, Luka Matic

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A DOCUMENTARY FILM
Neighbors (Croatia)
Filmed by: Jasenko Rasol

BEST SHORT FICTION
Fugue (Greece)
Directed by: Laura Neri

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Childless (Bulgaria)
Directed by: George Nicholas Zdravkov

BEST SHORT ANIMATION
The Call (Romania)
Directed by: Anca Damian

AUDIENCE AWARD – FEATURE
Irina (Bulgaria)
Directed by: Nadejda Koseva

AUDIENCE AWARD – DOCUMENTARY
49,172 (Bulgaria)
Directed by: Plamen Petrov

2018 Jury Prizes

BEST FEATURE FILM GRAND JURY PRIZE Bridging the Borders Award
Pomegranate Orchard
Directed by: Ilgar Najaf

SPECIAL JURY MENTION FEATURE FILM
Hawaii
Directed by: Jesús del Cerro

BEST FIRST FEATURE FILM
The Marriage
Directed by: Blerta Zeqiri

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Confrontation
Directed by: Nejla Demirci

SPECIAL JURY MENTION DOCUMENTARY FILM
The Other Side of Everything
Directed by: Mila Turajlić

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A FEATURE FILM
The Miner
Cinematographer: Matthias Pilz

SPECIAL JURY MENTION FEATURE FILM CINEMATOGRAPHY
Hawaii
Cinematographer: Tudor Vladimir Panduru

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A DOCUMENTARY FILM
The Other Side of Everything
Filmed by: Mila Turajlić

SPECIAL JURY MENTION DOCUMENTARY FILM CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Nearest Elsewhere. A Journey to Slovenia.
Cinematographer: Andrés Arce Maldonado

BEST SHORT FICTION
Written/Unwritten
Directed by: Adrian Silisteanu

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Between Lands
Directed by: Lore Rinsoz

BEST SHORT ANIMATION
The Best Customer
Directed by: Serghei Chiviriga

AUDIENCE AWARD – FEATURE
Unwanted
Directed by: Edon Rizvanolli

AUDIENCE AWARD – DOCUMENTARY
RE: Pete
Directed by: Andrei Russu

2017 Jury Prizes

BEST FEATURE FILM GRAND JURY PRIZE Bridging the Borders Award
The Constitution
Director: Rajko Grlić

SPECIAL JURY MENTION FEATURE FILM
My Aunt in Sarajevo
Director: Goran Kapetanović

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE FOR BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
That Trip We Took With Dad
Director: Anca Miruna Lăzărescu

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A FEATURE FILM EX AEQUO
Roza of Smyrna
Cinematographer: Kostas Gikas
That Trip We Took With Dad
Cinematographer: Christian Stangassinger

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Home Sweet Home
Director: Maja Prettner

SPECIAL JURY MENTION BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
My World is Upside Down
Director: Petra Seliškar

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A DOCUMENTARY FILM
My World is Upside Down
Cinematographer: Brand Ferro

BEST SHORT FICTION
Limbo
Director: Konstantina Kotzamani

SPECIAL JURY MENTION SHORT FICTION
Lost Exile
Director: Fisnik Maxhuni

SPECIAL JURY MENTION SHORT FICTION
Refugee 532
Director: Goran Kapetanović

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
The Other Side of Home
Director: Naré Mkrtchyan

BEST ANIMATION SHORT
Ethnophobia
Director: Joan Zhonga

SPECIAL JURY MENTION ANIMATION SHORT
Flutter
Director: Vladimir Todorov

AUDIENCE AWARD – FEATURE
That Trip We Took With Dad
Director: Anca Miruna Lăzărescu

AUDIENCE AWARD – DOCUMENTARY
Angel Wagenstein: Art is a Weapon
Director: Andrea Simon

Legacy Awards

The festival honors individuals or organizations for their contributions to the film community with an annual Legacy Award.

Otto Nemenz

Born in Austria to a Greek mother and Austrian father with roots in Romania, Otto Constantin Nemenz grew up in Turkey where he first developed an interest in photography. He went on to earn a degree in optical engineering from the Vienna Technical Institute in Austria and ever since has been instrumental in the advancement of technology in the motion picture industry. His first job in Hollywood was at Panavision, where he left to work on the John Frankenheimer-directed classic Grand Prix, as a camera technician. On that fabled shoot, Otto worked alongside second unit cameraman John M. Stephens, who pioneered the use of a number of camera mounts and developed the first remotely operated pan-and-tilt-head camera for this film. From the early days of working out of a garage, Otto devoted his life to building the world-class camera rental facility which bears his name, Otto Nemenz International (ONI). It is renowned for customizing and renting camera equipment to major Hollywood studios as well as independent film productions since 1979. Originally located on Vine Street in Hollywood, ONI now occupies a 40,000 sq. ft. facility in Culver City. ONI’s name stands for top-notch quality and innovation such as the Canon/Nemenz Zoom Lens for which the company received Sci Tech Oscar. The company machines its own parts and offers over 3,000 lenses and an extensive inventory of cameras to provide customized packages for any film requirement. Otto also founded the Los Angeles’ annual Cine-Gear Exposition for film, video and digital media. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Stefania Magidson

Romanian-American Stefania Magidson is the 2022 recipient of the SEEfest’s Legacy Humanitarian Award. With her Blue Heron Foundation, which she created in 2002 to lift abandoned youth in Romania from poverty and abuse, she quickly pivoted to refugee relief when the war broke out in Ukraine and led an emergency operation raising $280,000 to date and organizing her team of volunteers to meet refugees at the border with food, transportation and sim cards; also sending a weekly caravan of medicine to three Ukrainian hospitals. The Foundation installed heated medical modules in several refugee camps for the old and sick, and facilitated bringing US doctors and TeleHealth to Romania and Moldova.
Stefania Magidson was born in Romania and in 1983 immigrated with her family to the United States. She received degrees in Health Education and Applied Psychology.
In 2002 she founded the Blue Heron Foundation, one of the largest non-profits in the Romanian diaspora, focusing on improving the quality of life of Romanian and Moldovan abandoned youth by awarding them merit-based college scholarships and a mentorship program. To date, the organization has raised over 3 Million dollars, has awarded over 450 college scholarships and has touched the lives of over 3,000 kids.
Stefania serves on the Dean’s Council at Tisch School of the Arts/NYU; is the Chair of the Romanian Film Committee of the South-East European Film Festival/LA; is a member of the advisory board of the Roma People’s Project at the Hayman Center for Humanities/Columbia University.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Mark, their two sons and her parents.

Marija Škaričić

Marija Škaričić began her acting career in the Youth Theatre in her native city of
Split, Croatia. After completing her formal training at the Academy of Dramatic Art
in Zagreb, she appeared in numerous critically acclaimed productions of the
Croatian National Theatre (HNK). The role of the drug addict Maja in A
WONDERFUL NIGHT IN SPLIT (Arsen A. Ostojić, 2004) brought her the Heart of
Sarajevo Award for Best Actress.
Škaričić first worked with Andrea Štaka in the award-winning feature
film FRAULEIN (2006) and won her second Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best
Actress for her portrayal of the feisty young Bosnian wanderer Ana. In 2011 she was
one of the ten Berlinale EFP shooting stars.
For the leading role in MOTHER OF ASPHALT by Dalibor Matanić, she was awarded
the Best Actress Golden Arena in the national competition at the Pula Film
Festival, and the FIPA D’OR in Biarritz, France 2011. For the last seven
years Škaričić has focused on her academic career and taught acting at the Academy
of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. MARE is her third collaboration with Andrea Štaka, and
her third Heart of Sarajevo award.

Jasna Djuričić

Jasna Djuričić is a Serbian actress who plays the lead in the Academy Award
nominated film from Bosnia Herzegovina, QUO VADIS, AIDA? directed by Jasmila
Žbanić. Winner of all major acting prizes in her home country, she first gained
international recognition at the Locarno Film Festival in 2010 when she was
awarded Best Actress prize for her turn in White White World by Oleg Novković.
She graduated at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, where she is now professor
herself.
Ms Djuričić is member of the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad, a venerable
repertory playhouse. She has played the lead in countless stage productions at home
and as a guest actor in other theaters in the region. Among her cinema roles are Quo
Vadis, Aida?, My Morning Laughter, A Good Wife, Train Driver’s Diary, Men Don’t
Cry, Take Me Somewhere Nice, White White World, For Those Who Can Tell No
Tales, Circles, Autumn in My Street, The Paradise Suite, and numerous TV series.
She is married to actor Boris Isaković with whom she frequently co-stars.

Dubravka Ugrešić

Over the past three decades, Dubravka Ugrešić has established herself as one of
Europe’s most distinctive novelists and essayists. From her early postmodernist
excursions, to her elegiac reckonings in fiction and the essay with the disintegration
of her Yugoslav homeland and the fall of the Berlin Wall, through to her more recent
writings on popular and literary culture, Ugrešić’s work is marked by a rare
combination of irony, polemic, and compassion.Following degrees in Comparative and Russian Literature, Ugrešić worked for many years at the University of Zagreb’s Institute for Theory of Literature, successfully
pursuing parallel careers as both a writer and as a scholar. In 1991, when war broke
out in the former Yugoslavia, Ugrešić took a firm anti-war stance, critically
dissecting retrograde Croatian and Serbian nationalism, the stupidity and
criminality of war, and in the process became a target for nationalist journalists,
politicians and fellow writers. Subjected to prolonged public ostracism and
persistent media harassment, she left Croatia in 1993. She therefore positions
herself as a “transnational” or rather a “post-national” writer and champions the
right of authors not to recognize or respect ethnic and national borders, especially
in cases where these are being imposed by force, as they are in her case.
In an exile that has in time become emigration, her books have been translated into
thirty languages. She has taught at a number of American and European universities,
including Harvard, UCLA, Columbia and the Free University of Berlin. She is the
winner of several major literary prizes (Austrian State Prize for European Literature
1998; finalist of Man Booker International Prize 2009; Jean Améry Essay Prize,
awarded for her essayistic work as a whole, 2012; Vilenica Prize 2016; while
Karaoke Culture was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for
Criticism 2011. She is the winner of the 2016 Neustadt International Prize for
Literature.
Ugrešić lives in Amsterdam.
https://www.dubravkaugresic.com/

Gregory Laemmle

The 2019 SEEfest Legacy Award pays tribute to Gregory Laemmle in recognition of his, and his family’s commitment to international cinema, to generations of independent filmmakers whose films always found a screen available at one of Laemmle’s arthouse theaters, and to an audience of Angelenos for whom Laemmle Theaters are a second home.

Robert Dornhelm

Robert Dornhelm was born in 1947 in Timișoara, Romania and emigrated in 1961 to Austria, where he studied film at the Vienna Academy of Film, Music and Performing Arts. He started his career very early, directing numerous documentaries on social and cultural subjects, many of them in Eastern Europe (Vladimir Vysotsky, Neizvestny). His 1977 documentary on the Kirov School of Ballet, The Children of Theater Street, featured Princess Grace of Monaco in a rare film appearance as presenter and narrator. The film was shown in Cannes and established Dornhelm internationally when he received an Academy Award® nomination in 1978.

Mirjana Karanovic

Mirjana Karanović is a Serbian actress who shot to stardom with her screen debut in
the 1980 film Petria’s Wreath by Srđan Karanović. World fame came with the role of
the mother in Emir Kusturica’s When Father was Away on Business in 1985, which
won Palme d’Or in Cannes as well as the Fipresci award, and was nominated for an
Oscar, a Golden Globe, a National Board of Review and a David di Donatello awards.
One of her most memorable roles was Esma in Grbavica (The Land of My Dreams),
directed by Jasmila Žbanić, winner of the Golden Bear Award for Best Film at the
Berlinale 2006. For this performance, Mirjana Karanović has won a number of
festival awards and a nomination for the European Film Academy Award 2006.
Among other films, she appeared in Andrea Štaka’s Das Fraulein (Grand Prix at
Locarno Film Festival 2006, Heart of Sarajevo Award) and Darko Lungulov’s film
Here and There (The Best New York Narrative at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival).
This year, her directorial debut, A Good Wife had its world premiere at Sundance. In
2008 Mirjana Karanović won the Winning Freedom Award, an award presented to a
woman whose work promotes and affirms the principles of human rights, rule of
law, democracy and tolerance in society. SEEfest 2016 Legacy Award is presented
to Mirjana Karanović’s entire body of work in cinema, in support of human rights,
and for her dedication to students and young actors.

Victor Rebengiuc

Victor Rebengiuc is an award-winning Romanian film and stage actor. Since 1957,
he has been a member of the Bulandra Theater company, acting in more than 200
roles on that stage alone. Having had his breakthrough performance with Liviu
Ciule’s The Forest of the Hanged, Rebengiuc became a major figure in Romanian
cinema, and became especially known for his 1986 appearance in Stere Gulea’s
Moromeţii. He also starred in films by Dan Piţa (Tănase Scatiu; Dreptate în lanţuri;
Faleze de nisip; The Man of the Day) and Lucian Pintilie (De ce trag clopotele,
Mitică?; Balanţa; Too Late; Last Stop Paradise; Niki and Flo; Tertium non datur).
Rebengiuc was celebrated for his stage performances, appearing in plays directed
by, among others, Ciulei, Radu Penciulescu, Andrei Şerban, Cătălina Buzoianu, Yuri
Kordonsky, Gábor Tompa and Alexandru Dabija. The former husband of actress
Anca Vereşti, he is married to Mariana Mihuţ, his Bulandra colleague. He starred in
MEDAL OF HONOR (Cãlin Peter Netzer, 2009), AFERIM! (Radu Jude, 2015), HALF
SHAVED (Bogdan Muresanu, 2013) and THE JAPANESE DOG (Tudor Cristian Jurgiu,
2013). He has received multiple awards, and in 2017 was given the National order
“Star of Romania.”

George Chakiris

George Chakiris (born September 16, 1934) is a retired American dancer, singer,
and actor. He is best known for his appearance in the 1961 film version of the WEST
SIDE STORY as Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks gang, for which he won both the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best
Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.
Born in Ohio to Greek parents, George Chakiris enjoyed a long and versatile career
alongside such film luminaries as Catherine Deneuve and Gene Kelly in “The young
girls of Rochefort”, Charlton Heston in “Diamondhead”, Marilyn Monroe in
“Gentlemen prefer blondes” and Claudia Cardinale in “Bebo’s girl”, among many
others. He appeared on stage in London’s West End and on Broadway, hosted
musical TV specials in France, Germany and Japan, starred in mini-series in Japan
and England, and had recurring roles on American TV in “Dallas”, “Hawaii Five-O”,
and “The Carol Burnett Show”.
For his contributions to the arts George Chakiris has received France’s “Ordre des
Arts et des Lettres”.