Read and discover whose talent did not stay in the dark!

Beginning of yesterday, we believe, you all already know. From 9:30 our young filmmakers were in their positions in the chairs of Zorin dom auditorium. Thery viewed the last festival screenings of the competition program, the sixth and the seventh. After enjoying films and meeting their authors they had a well-deserved lunch break, because another afternoon at workshops awaited them.

As we explained yesterday, three main workshops: sound recording, animation out of the box and animated documentary film continued today and got their happy ending. Novelties for our guests were two dance workshops and workshops on the relationship of film and mathematics.

A part of the dance film program which we so cherish this year were Melita Spahić Bezjak and her dance film workshop and Nina Flis who gave a lecture on folklore on film. Nina showed elements of folklore and traditions that are a very frequent segment of our Croatian films, but also of films from our region. Thus, in this educational hour high school students learned something about the unexplored world of traditional dances, costumes and rituals in our home film that are sometimes underestimated and less watched.

How interesting math actually is and how much of it is actually seen on film explained the head of the workshop "Mathematics in film" Zrinka Tomašković, a professor of this often odious subjects - mathematics. Through several scientific films she showed a deeper sense of mathematics and the filmmakers didn't remain indifferent. Special interest was given to the maths story of the world's most famous animated film. You guessed it; it's about the Simpsons which have a multitude of mathematical elements in them. It is not surprising because all five authors of this fun cartoon are actually mathematicians.

While all our guests took part in the workshops, we had to somehow animate their mentors. Thus, dancer Vera Vrbanac gave a lecture 'Dance film - case study' in which she infected everyone with dance, her life passion for over 30 years. Also, jury member Rok Vevar introduced all the mentors of the festival to the methods of dance pedagogy.

Two competition screenings, eight workshops and then a well-deserved break with video games - that was yesterday until 21:30... After that everything got a completely different tone.

Due to bad weather the award ceremony moved from River Mrežnica to Zorin dom Theatre, but that did not spoil the atmosphere, because the evening was special due to a number of things. We did not just give away the awards, but we walked on our yellow carpet and watched the last screening of the competition program - dance films. After seven dance films that made us cheer, and some of the audience dance, we continued to the most important part. It’s best not to beat about the bush but to immediately tell you the winners or talents, as we prefer to call them this year. They are out of the dark. So let's start!

Ferdinand Glad Bach got Best Actor Award starring in the film "Unusual", by our perennial guests - Station Next. It seems that the Danes are really good actors because Best Actress Award went to Martina Hjejle from Station Next for her role in "Cherry bombs". The award for best director got Leo Vitasović and Jozo Jozipović from film incubator Blank from Zagreb for the film "Heavy colours" with which they have repeatedly won awards. Best cameraman comes from Karlovac. Paul Kocanjer from Out of Focus Association in his music video "Downcast Art-Face Without A Name" showed that he can handle the camera and so he obviously won the hearts of the three-membered jury. Best editor takes us further to America, to the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Seattle. It's about Hadley Hillel who edited the movie "Muffins". After these new awards which have been introduced this year and are awarded by the youth jury members, we could move on to the already-known part of the festival-winners in four categories, separately for YFF and FRFF.
Best freestyle film in the national competition was from creative film studio Vanima from Varaždin. "Dead comrade XXX (when the night all calm down)" proved best in this genre, while among the feature films the film "Coldblooded" from Elegy Film in Sesvete, Croatia took the victory. This year the award for best documentary will go to the Croatian south. The film "He," made by Male students' dormitory in Dubrovnik satisfied the appetites of the jury. Best animated film this year was made by FKVK Zaprešić. The film entitled "Annabel Lee" brought Zaprešić another victory in a row. Best freestyle film is "Welcome to the Freakshow" made by a solo artist Oskar Ott from Austria. Academy of Arts and Sciences from Seattle won the award for best editor in their film "The Talk". The prize for best animated film and best documentary goes to Armenians. The documentary "Love Story" and the animated film "Invisible Boundaries" from the Armenian Manana Youth Center can go home more than satisfied. Best dance film was the one with which we opened this festive evening - "Paola Di Rosa is happy" from the eponymous association in Dubrovnik.

The most awaited part of the evening was the declaration of the Grand Prix. Coincidence or not, the film "Pseudo Evolution" which won the hearts of the jury and the audience comes to us from Brazil, from the hands of the young author Alexandra Juruena.

Today, these young artists walked the yellow carpet. We do not doubt that a few of these young talents will in a few years pose for photographers on the red carpet. One can only hope that they will remember us!

Although almost all the awards are given away, the festival is not officially over. Today at the City Museum program ‘High school kids to high school kids’ awaits as well as debate, "Do modern technology and social networks provoke violence among youth?" at 11.30 in Zorin dom Theatre.

Then we will give out the remaining two prizes - Audience Award and the Yellow Flag award for the film that best promotes nonviolence. In addition, today we will finally be able to see the final works derived from 12 workshops and lectures, and to find out who was diligent and learned, and who was cutting classes. And of course, we will close the festival!

21.06.2014.