18/08/2023 - Titles from Georgia, Hungary and Croatia have taken home the top awards from the regional platform dedicated to documentary projects

The regional platform dedicated to documentary projects Docu Rough Cut Boutique, organised by the Sarajevo Film Festival and the Balkan Documentary Center, announced its winning titles during the CineLink awards ceremony on 17 August.

Five projects at an advanced stage of editing were assessed by the Docu Rough Cut Boutique jury, comprising Tereza Keilova (HBO Europe), Eugen Kelemen (Avanpost), Catherine LeClef (CAT&Docs), Marcel Maiga (DOK Leipzig), Lejla Dedić (Al Jazeera Balkans) and Sofia Tocar (Institute of Documentary Film). They gave out a total of six awards, which ended up being evenly split among three of the contenders.

The biggest prize, the Avanpost Award, worth €20,000, went to Adelina: Symphony of Longing and Estrangement by Rati Tsiteladze, which tells the story of a mother and daughter who are both outcasts, albeit in different places: one in the centre of Europe, the other in rural Georgia. The Georgian filmmaker also won the HBO Max Award, consisting of €2,000. In a dual win, Hungarian director Anna Rubi took home both the CAT&Docs Award and the East Silver Caravan Award (worth €2,000 each) for Your Life Without Me, a sensitive look at the sacrifices that elderly mothers have to make to enable their children to survive. Finally, Goran Dević got the €2,000 Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival/AJB Doc Award for Pavilion 6, as well as the DOK Leipzig Preview Award, which guarantees an invitation to present a project at the 2023 edition of the festival. Dević’s project observes the intimacy created between people waiting in line for their COVID vaccine.

Here is the full list of winners:

Avanpost Award
Adelina: Symphony of Longing and Estrangement – Rati Tsiteladze (Georgia)
Producer: Olga Slusareva
Production company: ArtWay Film

HBO Max Award
Adelina: Symphony of Longing and Estrangement – Rati Tsiteladze

CAT&Docs Award
Your Life Without Me – Anna Rubi (Hungary/Sweden)
Producer: Áron Szentpéteri
Co-producers: Annika Hellström, Erika Malmgren
Production company: Somnus Film
Co-production company: Cinenic Film

East Silver Caravan Award
Your Life Without Me – Anna Rubi

Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival/AJB Doc Award
Pavilion 6 – Goran Dević (Croatia)
Producer: Vanja Siruček
Production company: 15th Art Productions

DOK Leipzig Preview Award
Pavilion 6 – Goran Dević