Croatian cinema wins Best European Documentary Film award

The documentary-fiction film Fiume o morte! by Igor Bezinović won the Best European Documentary Film award, presented by the European Film Academy, at the European Film Awards in Berlin.

The film offers an innovative take on an episode from the history of the city of Rijeka, with local residents recounting and reinterpreting the story of the city’s 16-month occupation in 1919, led by Italian poet, dandy and war propagandist Gabriele D'Annunzio, CE Report quotes HINA.

The film was produced by Restart, with Vanja Jambrović and Tibor Keser as producers, and co-produced with Slovenia's Nosorogi and Italy's Videomante.

It had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival, where it won the festival's top prize as well as the FIPRESCI critics' award. The film has since toured the world, from Australia, Canada and the United States to Taiwan and Mexico, was screened at New York's MoMA, and selected for around 50 festivals, winning numerous awards, including six Golden Arena awards at the Pula Film Festival.

The film achieved notable success in Croatian cinemas and was also selected as Croatia's official submission for the Academy Awards, as well as for Spain's Goya Award.

Fiume o morte! had also been nominated in the Best European Film category.

The European Film Award for Best Film went to Sentimental Value, a drama by Norwegian director Joachim Trier about the relationship between a father and daughter.

Five awards were won by Sirāt, a film by French director Óliver Laxe, which follows a father in search of his missing daughter along with his son and a group of ravers in the deserts of southern Morocco.

The 38th European Film Awards ceremony was held in Berlin, with around 5,400 members of the European Film Academy eligible to vote, similar to the Oscars in the United States.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann.