SEEfest 2021 Awards and Wrap Up – Video

Showcasing the outstanding films and events featured at SEEfest 2021…

The 2021 South East European Film Festival Filmmaker Awards

Andrea Štaka’s Mare wins Best Narrative Feature, and Catherine Harte’s Faith & Branko is named Best Documentary Feature.

Best Cinematography awards went to In The Shadows’ Hayk Kirakosyan (Narrative), with Nun of Your Business’ Ivana Marinić Kragić’ and That Other Village’s Srđan Kovačević co-winners in the Documentary category. A complete list of awards is here.

Audience Award winner: SO, WHAT’S FREEDOM?

The powerful drama about the 1951 deportations in Romania, SO, WHAT’S FREEDOM? by American-Romanian filmmaker Andrei Zinca, was the highest-rated film of SEEfest 2021 and the winner of the festival’s Audience Award. With a score of 88 out of a maximum of 100, this film proved to be an audience favorite in spite of the difficult subject matter and traumatic events from the country’s past.

Accepting the award, filmmaker Andrei Zinca said,

“SEEfest’s audience understands the power of cinema to reach beyond countries, beyond language barriers, and take us to places and experiences in the past that can resonate with us today.  “So, What’s Freedom?” was not intended to be just a Romanian story. Freedom, the lack of it, and its manipulation by all political systems has been and still is an everyday and everywhere story.“

Congratulations to the filmmaker, the talented cast and crew, and big thanks to our audience members who judged the films with their votes.

What was your favorite film?

Let us know in the comments which films you liked! We’d love to know.