The Golden Pram for Best Feature goes to Leonardo Van Dijl’s Belgian-Swedish film ''Julie Keeps Quiet''; Best International Short is Taiwanese ''Stag'' by An Chu, while Best Croatian Short is Sara Alavanić’s ''Spot''; The Young Jury PLUS Award goes to Thai hit ''How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies''
After six days filled with events and packed film screenings, the official part of the Zagreb Film Festival ended on Saturday evening with the awards ceremony and the Croatian premiere of Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. The festival was closed with the audience at CineStar Branimir in high spirits, as Director Boris T. Matić and Program Director Selma Mehadžić announces this year’s winners.
The Best Feature Film was decided by producer Anamaria Antoci, director Ninna Pálmadóttir and Vancouver and Toronto festivals selector Sonja Baksa. The Feature Film Jury unanimously awarded the Golden Pram for Best Feature Film to Leonardo Van Dijl’s Belgian-Swedish drama Julie Keeps Quiet.
“The main film prize goes to a mature, measured and finely calibrated feature debut that showcases incredible command of tone, structure, and pacing. The psychological drama and inner tension are handled beautifully, enriched with stylistic touches and repetition that build slowly on the character’s inner turmoil with impressive restraint and complexity”, said the jury’s statement.
Although no Special Mentions were awarded at the 22nd ZFF, the feature film jury highlighted another title from the feature film competition that “deserves an artistic nod for its masterfully crafted storytelling, profound performances and bold tone – Drowning Dry by Laurynas Bareiša”.
The International Short and Checkers jury, consisting of two-time laureate of the ZFF International Short competition, Daniel Soares, last year’s Checkers program winner David Gašo, and the selector of the Hamburg Film Festival, Yulia Serdyukova, has chosen winners in three categories.
The Golden Pram for Best Croatian Film in the Checkers program went to Sara Alavanić’s short film Spot, “an unconventionally structured piece brimming with ambitious ideas stands out primarily for its unique poetic approach, but also for a convincing insight into the social milieu barely explored in Croatian films”.
The Golden Pram for Best International Short went to Taiwanese director An Chu’s The Stag, “a film where theme, craft and vision come together in an outstanding mark of cinematic achievement. This film blew our minds from the first to the last frame. It questions the role of fatherhood and male behaviour in general”.
European Short Film Candidate – Prix Vimeo for the 2026 European Film Awards is The Idea of an Island directed by Carmen Pedrero which, “using a childlike energy and honesty, offers to the audience a multilayered take on humanity’s extremes”.
The Young Jury consisting of Ema Fabian, Jelena Jurić and Marta Petraković awarded the PLUS Award for Best Film to the Thai director Pat Boonnitipat’s bitter-sweet flick How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies. “With its heartfelt story that leaves no one indifferent, the film contextualises us, as young people, in the world of transience”, says the statement of the Young Jury.
The Golden Bicycle for Best Film in the Together Again program was awarded by the jury consisting of Andrej Korovljev, Hrvoje Osvadić and Klara Šovagović, to the film Santosh directed by Sandhya Suri, “which does not condemn, but calls for an understanding of a world where there are no simple answers, where justice and truth become relative concepts, lost in the complexity of social relations”.
The Children’s Jury consisting of Lota Szilvasy, Alma Šarić and Juraj Čarnohorski awarded the KinoKino Award for Best Film to Klemen Dvornik’s Block 5, stating “the film inspired us and made us believe that it is worthwhile to fight for what we believe in and that our voice counts as much as anyone else’s”.
The organisers thanked the City of Zagreb Office for Culture, Intercity and International Relations and Civil Society, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Creative Europe – MEDIA Sub-program, Zagreb Tourist Board, Kultura Nova, and numerous sponsors, embassies, cultural institutes, and media sponsors. They also especially thanked the dedicated festival team and the loyal audience, without whom the Zagreb Film Festival would not exist.
Source: ZFF
