News
Balkan, Scandi folk party in Portugal
13/06/2007
Folk from the Balkans and Scandinavia walked away with the bulk of the prizes at the Festroia Intl. Film Fest, held in Setubal, Portugal."Border Post," a co-production between Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and the U.K., took the Gold Dolphin and Fipresci prize for film and the directing prize for its Croat helmer Rajko Grlic.
Another Croat, Ognjen Svilicic, took the scripting kudo for "Armin," a Croatia-Bosnia-Germany co-production. Serbia's "The Optimists," helmed by Goran Paskaljevic, took the audience award.
Susanne Bier's Danish pic "After the Wedding" won the special jury prize and Swedish thesp Rolf Lassgard took best actor for his part in the film.
Swedish thesps Helena Bergstrom and Maria Lundqvist shared the prize for actress for their roles in Colin Nutley's "Heartbreak Hotel."
Denmark's "The Art of Crying," directed by first-timer Peter Schonau Fog, got a special mention as well as the prize from CICAE, the international federation of arthouse cinemas.
The only major awards to go to pics from outside the Balkans or Scandinavia were the Cuban-Spanish movie "Madrigal," which took cinematography kudo for Cuban Raul Perez Ureta, and Germany's "Princess," which won the first film prize for Birgit Grosskopf.
Fest ran June 1-10.