Belgrade΄s 21st Auteur Film Festival awarded The Fourth Direction by Gurvinder Singh (France/India, 2015) with the Aleksandar Saša Petrović Grand Prix, the second award in few days for the Cannes 2015 Un Certain Regard premiere, after being named Best Asian Film at Singapore International Film Festival 2015.

The jury, comprised by filmmakers Pavle Vučković and Ognjen Sviličić, and the international programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival, Rasha Salti, awarded Corneliu Porumboiu with the Best Director Award for his The Treasure (Romania/France, 2015), while Athina Rachel Tsangari΄s Chevalier (Greece, 2015) received a Special Mention. 

Daphné Hérétakis΄s Archipelagos, Naked Granites (France/Greece, 2015, 25΄) was awarded at the the Brave Balkans competition program, which was launched this year and included feature, documentary and short films form the region. 

Auteur Film Festival΄s Balkan Film Connection, the educational/networking platform for Southeast European film students and young professionals, which was held between December 1 to 5, focused its 2nd edition on  developing a script for a first feature-length fiction film. 

Eight participants from different Balkan countries worked on their projects with renowned tutors, scriptwriters and professors through individual meetings, watched films from this year΄s festival and took part in open for the public discussions on the film Frenzy with filmmaker Emin Alper and Land and Shade with César Augusto Acevedo. Along with directors from the Brave Balkan programme of the festival, the participants also jointed the roundtable What Is Bravery In Balkan Cinema?.