Don't Think It Will Ever Pass wins Vesna for best film

"Documentary film is on a winning streak" this year and is getting to where it belongs after being sidelined for a long period of time, said the festival's director Bojan Labović ahead of the awards ceremony.

Grom's documentary is a completely unique film with a strong emotional charge that requires the viewer to be present. It is experimental and enigmatic and at the same time subtle, honest and open to associations, the jury said of the winner, adding that "like a ritual, like an urge, it transforms pain into beauty". Grom also received the Vesna for best original score.

Completely without dialogue, the film "finds poetry in the banality of everyday life", the jury added.

In his acceptance speech Grom said he was thankful for situations "that allow us to discuss taboo topics". The subtitle of his film is 25 April - 26 January, pointing to the dates of the death and birth of his son. "Two important milestones for me. Also, the beginning and the end of shooting, with exactly nine months in between."

The film was produced by Špela Trošt, production manager at the Sploh Institute.

The Vesna awards for best feature-length fiction film and best screenplay went to Marko Šantić's Zbudi Me (Wake Me Up), which tells the story of a man suffering from temporary amnesia who wants to redefine himself after returning to his home town.

Through the perspective of memory loss, the film opens up a space for reflection on hatred, intolerance and nationalism. It is "a brave film, a very relevant one for our times, which talks about violence without reproducing it", the jury said.

The award-winning screenplay was penned by Šantić, Goran Vojnović and Sara Hribar, and the producers were Danijel Hočevar and Zala Opara from the Vertigo production company.

For the roles of Rok and Damjan Jure Henigman and Jurij Drevenšek were awarded the Vesnas for best leading actor and best supporting actor, respectively.

The film took almost eight years to make, its director said and pointed out this period had been one of the most difficult ones for Slovenian filmmaking due to the Covid-19 pandemic and funding issues.

The Vesna for best leading actress went to Diana Kolenc for her role in Janez Burger's Observing (Opazovanje), while Vesna Pernarčič won the Vesna Award for best supporting actress for her role in Vzornik (Role Model), a film by Nejc Gazvoda.

Sara Gjergek was awarded the Vesna for best editing in Maja Prettner's Woman of God, also the winner of the Fipresci Association of Film Critics Award and the audience award. The best director award was handed out to Ivan Gergolet for the film Mož Brez Krivde (The Man Without Guilt).

Other winners include Petra Seliškar's Telo (The Body) as best short documentary, Barbara Zemljič's Kako Sem Se Naučila Obešati Perilo (How I Learned to Hang Laundry) as best short fiction film, and Croatian director Juraj Lerotić's Sigurno Mjesto (Safe Place) as best minority co-production.

The Vesnas for special achievement were presented to directors Damjan Kozole and Alex Cvetkov.