Andrea Štaka’s Mare leads awards for SEEfest 2021; highlighting cinematography among the winners

Andrea Štaka’s Mare leads awards for SEEfest 2021. The 2021 South East European Film Festival (SEEfest), co-presented by ELMA, foundation for European Languages and Movies in America, announced the filmmaker awards for the 16th annual edition of the Los Angeles-based film festival.

Andrea Štaka’s Mare led awards with the jury award for Best Narrative Feature

Presenting and celebrating cinematic and cultural diversity of 19 countries of the Balkans and Caucasus to American audiences, the film festival is the leader in the U.S. for the discovery of new talent from South East Europe.

Andrea Štaka’s Mare
MARE (Best Narrative Feature Winner)
FAITH & BRANKO (Best Documentary Feature winner)
FAITH & BRANKO (Best Documentary Feature winner)

Andrea Štaka’s Mare received the jury award for Best Narrative Feature, and Catherine Harte’s Faith & Branko won the jury award for Best Documentary Feature. SEEfest’s Audience Award went to Andrei Zinca’s So, What’s Freedom?.In continuing with the SEEfest traditional emphasis on the artistry of directors of photography, Best Cinematography awards went to In The Shadows’Hayk Kirakosyan in the Narrative category, while Nun of Your Business’ Ivana Marinić Kragić’ and That Other Village’s Srđan Kovačević shared the Documentary nod.


IN THE SHADOWS (Best Cinematography - Narrative)
IN THE SHADOWS (Best Cinematography – Narrative)
NUN OF YOUR BUSINESS (Best Cinematography - Documentary)
NUN OF YOUR BUSINESS (Best Cinematography – Documentary)

THAT OTHER VILLAGE (Best Cinematography - Documentary)
THAT OTHER VILLAGE (Best Cinematography – Documentary)

“It is a special privilege for us at SEEfest to recognize artists of South East European heritage who enrich international cinema,” says Vera Mijojlić, founder and director of SEEfest. “These awards are representative of cultural and cinematic diversity of South East Europe, and we are proud of our track record in discovering new talent, bringing to American audiences the beauty, artistry, ingenuity of these marginalized cultures. Our festival team congratulates all award winners, with special thanks to the Jury and industry members whose support is indispensable.”

The runner up in the Narrative Feature category from the 2021 SEEfest jury went to Nóra Lakos’ Cream, with Andrei Zinca’s So, What’s Freedom? receiving an Honorable Mention. In the Documentary Feature category, two films received Honorable Mentions; Tatia (Tamar) Skhirtladze’s Glory to The Queen, and Darko Bajić’s Line Of Life. Fear’s Emil Christov received an Honorable Mention for Best Narrative Cinematography.

IN BETWEEN (Best Short Film - Narrative)
IN BETWEEN (Best Short Film – Narrative)
COLLECTING TIME (Best Short Film - Documentary)
COLLECTING TIME (Best Short Film – Documentary)

Short film jury award winners included Ana Pasti’s In Between (Narrative), with Georgi M. Unkovski’s Sticker and Galina D. Georgieva’s French Cinema both receiving Honorable Mentions. Christos Sagias’ Collecting Time took the jury prize for Best Documentary Short, and Gevi Dimitrakopoulou’s This Is Right; Zak Life and After was cited for an Honorable Mention for “shining a spotlight on an important subject in a compelling way.” In SEEfest’s annual focus on animation, the jury chose Natko Stipaničev’s Arka for the top prize, with Kata Gugić’s Cockpera, and Marija Vulić’s Elusiveness both receiving Honorable Mentions.      

ARKA (Best Short Film - Animation)
ARKA (Best Short Film – Animation)

SEEfest’s impressive jury was an expansive group of international film and visual artists, industry veterans, influencers and journalists, including; Producer/Director of the International Short Film Competition (ISFC), Shervin Abachi; director/cinematographer Alan Caudillo (Deputy); actress Tyra Colar (Twenties); model and competitive fencer Claudia Maria Ferreira da Costa; writer/director Lagueria Davis (Light in Dark Places); journalist Steve Dollar (Filmmaker Magazine); journalist Edward Douglas (Weekend Warrior); art photographer Lisa Folino; cinematographer David Frederick (Aquarius); director/editor Èva Gárdos (Budapest Noir); actress/producer Denise Grayson (The Social Network); journalist Nia Hampton (Black Femme Fest); writer/director Atil Inaç (Daire); Artistic Director at Sentient.Art.Film, Keisha Knight; deputy editor Rebecca Pahle (Boxoffice Pro); producer/director/camerawoman Michelle Paymar (From Cairo to the Cloud; The World of the Cairo Geniza); Oscar-winning filmmaker, author, graphic designer Arnold Schwartzman (Liberation);  filmmaker Ivana Todorovic (When I’m At Home); Executive Director of Dallas Video Fest and director Bart Weiss (Fire Bones); and concept designer/illustrator Milena Zdravkovic.

A trio of dynamic women comprised this year’s SEEfest honorees including internationally celebrated author Dubravka Ugrešić (“The Age of Skin,” “Baba Yaga Laid an Egg”) the Legacy Award honoree, along with Marija Škaričić (Mare) and Jasna Djuričić (Quo Vadis, Aida?) who were both honored with the film festival’s inaugural Legacy Acting Award.

This year’s virtual edition of the film festival offered a wide variety of topics and themes, matching the wide breadth of diversity among the 19 countries the films represented. Whether it be history, transgender experiences, the ecology, dystopian future, folk tales, eccentric neighbors, nomadic lifestyle, gay romance, and more, each film unlocked a door into an interesting life and gave audiences the opportunity to enrich their experience through a movie time-travel. Among the audience favorites were Jasmila Žbanić’s Bosnian Academy Award-nominated Quo Vadis, Aida? and Ivaylo Hristov’s Bulgarian film, Fear, followed by Zinca’s USA/Romania co-production So, What’s Freedom?, Marko Djordjević Serbian arthouse darling My Morning Laughter, and Antonio Pisu’s Italian-Romanian film, EST.

In addition to the virtual screenings, SEEfest offered a treasure trove of bonus content with over 20 filmmaker interviews which also proved to be a hit with this year’s audiences, and hosted two weeks of Accelerator workshops for filmmakers with new projects in development, culminating with a Producers Panel where projects were pitched, boardroom-style, to industry professionals.

Book-ending the festival were an Opening event with Jury members offering a frank back-and-forth on filmmaking inspired by the competition films and their personal experiences, and a Closing night “Industry Outlook” panel, with producers, streaming platform executives and distributors, participating in entertaining fashion as they shared their views on where the film industry is headed in the next couple of years.

To find more information about SEEfest, please go to: https://seefilmla.org/.


SO, WHAT'S FREEDOM? (Audience Award)
SO, WHAT’S FREEDOM? (Audience Award)

The 2021 South East European Film Festival (SEEfest) Jury Award Winners:

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE

Mare                                                                                       

Director: Andrea Štaka

Runner up

Cream                                                            

Director: Nóra Lakos

Honorable Mention

So, What’s Freedom? 

Director: Andrei Zinca

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (NARRATIVE FEATURE)

In The Shadows                                                                                                       

Cinematographer: Hayk Kirakosyan

Honorable Mention

Fear                                                                           

Cinematographer: Emil Christov

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

Faith & Branko                                                         

Director: Catherine Harte

Honorable Mention

Glory to The Queen                                                

Director: Tatia (Tamar) Skhirtladze

Honorable Mention

Line Of Life                                                              

Director: Darko Bajić 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (DOCUMENTARY FEATURE)

Nun of Your Business

Cinematographer: Ivana Marinić Kragić

That Other Village

Cinematographer: Srđan Kovačević

SEEfest AUDIENCE AWARD

So, What’s Freedom?

Director: Andrei Zinca

BEST SHORT FILM – NARRATIVE

In Between

Director: Ana Pasti

Honorable Mention

Sticker           

Director: Georgi M. Unkovski

Honorable Mention

French Cinema        

Director: Galina D. Georgieva

BEST SHORT FILM – DOCUMENTARY

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

Arka   

Director: Natko Stipaničev

Honorable Mention

Cockpera      

Director: Kata Gugić

Honorable Mention

Elusiveness  

Director: Marija Vulić

Andrea Štaka’s Mare leads awards for SEEfest 2021; highlighting cinematography among the winners