Mall Girls Awarded in Cottbus

Mall Girls by Katarzyna Rosłaniec received the award for Best Debut Film, while Anna Karczmarczyk was awarded Best Actress at the 19th Festival of East European Cinema in Cottbus.

The festival Grand Prix went to the Serbian feature Ordinary People by Vladimir Perisic. The winner received a cash prize of 18,000 euros. The jury pointed out the “extraordinary artistic value of the film”. Ordinary People is the story of a military unit that kills civilians during wartime operations.

The award for Best Actor went to Relja Popovic for his role in Ordinary People. He played a young soldier who joins the elite unit, unaware that he will be ordered to commit war crimes. The jury awarded him for his “minimalistic and instinctive way of acting”.

Through her role in Mall Girls, Anna Karczmarczyk, winner of the Best Actress award, impressed the jury with her “ability to show the evolution of a child into a woman in a moving coming-of-age story”.

The award for Best Directing is shared by three filmmakers: Zvonimir Juric and Goran Devic from Croatia for The Blacks, and Aleksey Mizgirev from Russia for Buben Baraban.

The winner of the Short Film Competition was Coming Out by Pici Papai.

Translated by Karolina Kołtun