altcine - The 11th Bosnian-Herzegovinian FiIm Festival Awards

The 11th Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival has come to an end and it΄s time to announce the winners of the Golden Apple awards! All winning films were announced at the festival’s Closing Party on Saturday, May 3rd, held at The Varick Room at Tribeca Cinemas.

This year’s BHFF screened a total of 16 feature, short, and documentary films, compiled from a total of 33 submissions from 10 countries including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, the Netherlands, Finland, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the United States, and Canada.

...And the winners are!

The BHFF Jury Award for the Best Feature Film went to An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker by Danis Tanovic. Mum by Ado Hasanovic won the BHFF 2014 Jury Award for Best Short Film and the film Finding Family by Chris Leslie and Oggi Tomic won the BHFF 2014 Jury Award for the Best Documentary.

An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker by Danis Tanovic

In addition to the Jury Award for the Best Documentary Film, Finding Family also won the BHFF 2014 Audience Award for Best Picture. The film’s director, Chris Leslie, accepted both Golden Apples at the Closing Party. Leslie said he is “absolutely delighted to win the awards,” and added that “just having the film screen at BHFF in New York City is a great accolade in itself.”

Chris Leslie at BHFF Closing Party

Oggi Tomic, whose life story is the subject of the documentary, was thrilled with the big win: “Wow – what can I say, to have its New York City premiere and be up in competition with great filmmakers and films is an honor in itself, but to win not just one, but two awards is beyond my expectations and I am extremely ecstatic with the result.’’

The awarded films were selected by the official BHFF 2014 Jury, an expert panel comprising of L.A. based author, filmmaker and photographer Harun Mehmedinović, internationally acclaimed artist Nebojša Šerić-Shoba and Brooklyn-based filmmaker and multimedia artist Amir Husak. Husak was present at the Closing Party to announce the Golden Apple award winners in each category.

When asked to comment on this year’s film selection, Mehmedinović praised Danis Tanovic’s latest feature film: “I think this is Danis’ best film and is a pretty good example of the type of film which I’d like to see other directors try. In other words, they should find people who are interesting, but are not actors. Forget about writing the script, and let it be improvised and be spontaneous.”