JURY AND AWARDS
Free Zone Film Festival is giving awards for:
JURY
INTERNATIONAL JURY
Vladimir Šojat is a film producer, editor and video artist. Together with Milica Lapčević, he founded the independent artistic film and video production artterror in 1989. Artterror works have been shown at numerous film and video festivals as well as exhibitions, of which MoMA PS1 The Kitchen (New York), Center Georges Pompidou (Paris), Bauhaus (Dessau), ICA (San Francisco), Museum of the Yugoslav Cinematheque, MSUB, KCB stand out.
Within his production company Frakcija (founded in 2015), he has produced dozens of documentary and experimental films. He often collaborates with visual artists. The film produced by Fraction, Fringe Infringe by the Škart group, won awards for best direction and editing.
Šojat is the initiator of the film workshop Kinoaktiv at the Society of Slovenians SAVA in Belgrade, the editing supervisor at Atelier Varan Paris, as well as the mentor of a series of film workshops. He is selector of DSF+ reviews, which, as part of the Slovenian Film Day in Belgrade, affirms short and experimental films of current Slovenian production. He was one of the organizers of the Karpa Godina film retrospective, which was held at the Yugoslav Cinematheque in 2022.
Šojat deals with film theory through essays and lectures. His book Long and Staring: View on Characters in Documentary Film, was published by DKSG in 2019.
Ana Pejović is a cultural worker and translator with twenty years of experience in publishing and the civil sector, primarily in the sphere of children’s literature and culture, as well as in the sphere of human rights and critical culture.
In her editorial career, she edited and co-edited over two hundred titles by local, regional and foreign authors. She has translated several fiction titles from English, including books by David Lodge, Adam Hazlett and Richard Owen Roberts. She edited the Serbian edition of the book “I dig Feminism”, together with the authors Lamija Begagić and Marina Veličković.
In 2009, together with Vladimir Arsenijević, she founded the KROKODIL Association, in which she worked as a project manager and main coordinator until 2019, organizing over twenty large literary festivals and performances in Serbia, the region and Europe, as well as a residency program for writers.
Also, together with Jasminka Petrović and the Association of Education and Culture, she launched the Krokodokodil festival and a program to support reading culture among the youngest population – elementary school children.
For the last three years, she has been working in the German peace organization forumZFD, with a focus on education, culture of memory and digital memory from the perspective of women.
Alen Munitić started the Split Mediterranean Film Festival (FMFS) in 2008, of which he is the artistic director. At that time, he already had five years of professional experience at the largest regional festivals, such as Zagreb Film Festival, Motovun Film Festival, ZagrebDox, Animafest Zagreb, etc. In a short time FMFS became the most visited cultural event in Split.
In 2012, he launched Kino Mediteran, a project for revitalizing cinemas in Dalmatia, which today takes place in more than 20 cities. Since 2016, Kino Mediteran has been managing the regional distribution of independent European films, and in 2020 he launched a VOD platform dedicated to art films.
REGIONAL JURY BALKAN HORIZONS
Vuk Ršumović is an award-winning writer & director. He studied writing for film and theatre at the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade and Studies of Analytical Psychology of Carl Gustav Jung both in Belgrade and Zürich.
His feature film debut No One’s Child had World Premiere at Venice Film Festival Critic’s Week where it won three awards: Settimana della critica Raro Video Audience Award, FIPRESCI Critics Award for Best Film (Orizzonti and International Critics’ Week), and FEDEORA Award for Best Script. The film has won over 35 awards all over the world, among them New Voices/New Visions Award at Palm Springs International Film Festival, Best Film Award at GoEast Film Festival in Wiesbaden and Best Director Award at Tarkovsky International Film Festival.
In 2020, he wrote and directed TV mini-series The Mould based on a true story about a notorious “missing babies” affair in former Yugoslavia. Dwelling Among the Gods is his second feature film.
He has been writing extensively for TV and theatre and works as a full time professor of Screenwriting and Film Directing. He is an active member of European Film Academy.
Narcisa Darijević Marković graduated in Film and TV Directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. Her graduate film Magic received awards for debut film and direction at international and domestic festivals. It was the Serbian representative in the “Oscar” category for student film.
She is a professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade at the Department of Film and TV Directing, where she is Head of the Department. She teaches Documentary Film and Sound Direction.
In addition to academic work, Narcisa shoots documentaries, TV shows and directs in the theater. Her notable films are Mediana 2000, Even-Odd and Light on the Hill. Frescoes of Studenica: Thoughts of Eternity, premiered at SANU, as part of the national exhibition about Studenica Monastery. In 2020, it received an award for creative documentary research at the Pokrov film festival in Kyiv.
She is the founder and artistic director of the first student documentary film festival in Serbia, “Clear Rivers” in Temska.
She is a member of the Association of Film Artists and the Association of Film Directors of Serbia.
Miloš Pušić is a director and producer, born in 1980 in Senta.
He directed the short film Lullaby for a Boy (2007), which was successfully screened at festivals around the world. After that, he directed the feature films Autumn in My Street (2009) and Withering (2013). He is the producer of the film My Morning Laughter (2019).
His last film Working Class Heroes (2022) which he signed as a director and a producer, premiered at the Berlinale 2022 in the Panorama program. It won the Grand Prix at the Andrey Tarkovsky International Film Festival “Zerkalo” and Audience Award at Bologna Film Festival.
Miloš works as an assistant professor at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, on the subject of directing.
“First Two Steps”JURY
Nikola Spasić is an award-winning Serbian film director, editor and producer. He graduated in directing at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, mastered editing at FDA in Belgrade. He is on PhD at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Computing in Belgrade.
His films have been screened at film festivals such as FIDMarseille, Torino Film Festival, Seville European Film Festival, etc. Nicole’s feature film Cristina won Best First Film at FIDMarseille and Best Emerging Director at the Seville European Film Festival as well as several other international awards and accolades. The documentary, Why Dragan Made an Orchestra, was screened at over 40 festivals, winning the Grand Prize and the Audience Award at the Cinema City Festival. His films have been shown on numerous European VOD platforms.
One of the founders of the production company Rezon, he is an author and producer of short feature and documentary films, theater plays and radio dramas. He was a jury member at many Festivals and is the selector of the main international program of the Novi Sad Film Festival and a member of the council of several film and theater festivals. He is a member of the DokSrbija Association and the Association of Directors.
Ivana Jadrić is the head of film distribution and program at Kino Mediteran – a regional distributor of independent films and cinema screener with a network of twenty cinemas in towns along the Dalmatian coast. She has been a part of Kino Mediterran since its beginnings, when it was launched in 2012 in only a few smaller towns as a project to revitalize Dalmatian cinemas, only to grow over time into one of the largest independent Croatian cinemas.
She is one of the program selectors and program coordinator at the Split Mediterranean Film Festival (FMFS), which is held every year in June.
Dina Duma is a film director from North Macedonia. She graduated in film and TV directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje in 2014, and in 2016 she was selected for the Berlinale Talents.
Her debut feature Sisterhood premiered in the East of the West competition at the 2021 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize. Sisterhood represented North Macedonia in 2022 Oscar’s in category for Best Foreign Language Film. It is the first Macedonian film ever on Netflix.
Dina is currently developing her new film, Skateboarding is Not for Girls, selected by the Residence Project of the Cannes Film Festival.
TEEN JURY
Teodora Pribaković is a 16-year-old student of the 14th Belgrade Gymnasium. She is a member of the school’s drama section because she loves acting, plays, painting, movies, photography, in one word, art.
She believes that in all of the above we can find some message that affects our personal development. She is very communicative and looks forward to meeting new people, so she thinks this will be an interesting and useful experience for her.
Iva Živković is a 16-year-old student of the Fourteenth Belgrade Gymnasium. She has always been interested in art so she enjoys drawing and painting. She often spends his free time in the theater and loves photography.
Iva plans to use her love and talent for art in her life and she thinks that this is a good step towards that.
Nikola Bojović is a 16-year-old student of the 14th Belgrade Gymnasium. He likes to be involved in social and cultural programs. He participated in the preparation and implementation of various school events (music performances, award ceremonies, promotions of student works). Nikola was the moderator of literary evenings and matinees.
Nataša Leto is a 15-year-old student of the 14th Belgrade Gymnasium.
Ever since childhood, she has been mesmerized by the feeling of excitement before entering a new story and a new world, when the lights slowly start to fade in the cinema hall.
Zoja Andrijanić is a 16-year-old student of the 14th Belgrade Gymnasium, a socio-linguistic course. She is engaged in drawing and painting, she participated in many competitions and workshops and exhibited her works in several exhibitions.
In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, watching movies and hanging out with her peers.
Olivera Ranđić Award
Committed. Curious. Open. Smart. Creative. Witty. Brave. Reliable. Gentle. Imaginative. Persistent. Unique.
That was Olivera Ranđić, coordinator and spiritus movens of the Free Zone Junior program. We lost her too soon, in December 2022. In memory of Olja and her incredible work, the B92 Fund and the Free Zone Film Festival are introducing the “Olja Ranđić” Award for the most creative contribution to (in)formal education, for breakthroughs, innovation and courage in introducing new methodologies and tools in education in the field of human rights and humanities, while encouraging cooperation between educational institutions and the non-governmental sector at all levels.
With this award, we want to give recognition to our Olja, and to similar good spirits of education, whether they work in the system or outside of it, who move things in one of the most important areas of life and strive to make learning more interesting and important for children and young people. To those who give themselves unreservedly for the essential progress of this society through the promotion of knowledge, understanding and openness, we want to show that there are many of us who appreciate their passion and contribution. We want to encourage them not to surrender and not to give up. Neither did our Olja, because she understood the importance of what she was doing.
Thanks to her persistence, dedication and creativity, in more than 15 years that she guided and developed it, the B92 Free Zone Junior Fund program initiated a conversation in the education system in Serbia about the development of solidarity, understanding, activism and expanded the knowledge about important social topics through the application of engaging films in teaching. Junior today includes many activities in elementary, high school and higher education, as well as extracurricular programs for high school students.
Olja’s colleagues and friends will continue her work and encourage others, among other things, by giving an award with Olja’s name, to continue to contribute to this important field with enthusiasm and belief in the essential importance of improving education through the use of innovative and creative tools.