– The San Sebastián victor has picked up the main prize from the jury, while Alex Camilleri’s festival hit got the Audience Award, with Guil Sela’s No Skate bagging both in the shorts competition
Żejtune director Alex Camilleri with his award (© Maja Prgomet)
The 19th Mediterranean Film Festival Split (FMFS, 11-20 June) came to a close on Saturday night with Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s San Sebastián and Goya prizewinner Sundays picking up the FMFS Hook for Best Official Competition Feature Film, worth €2,000. Since this is one of the most popular events in Croatia, which this year saw another increase in attendance levels, the Audience Award arguably carries the same weight, and it went to Alex Camilleri’s Żejtune, hot on the heels of its win for Best Screenplay at Tribeca (see the news).
Since the festival is dedicated to distribution and exhibition, especially through its Kino Mediteran arm, the main jury comprised three independent Croatian exhibitors: Tanja Miličić, of Kino Valli in Pula; Marta Ban, of Art-kino in Rijeka; and Andrej Fric, of Kino Zona in Zadar. They gave a Special Mention to another Spanish San Sebastián competitor: Maspalomas by Aitor Arregi and José Mari Goenaga.
Another festival hit, French filmmaker Guil Sela’s 2025 Critics’ Week entry No Skate!, scored a double whammy by winning both the Audience Award and the FMFS Hook for Best Mediterranean Short Film, worth €3,000, the highest monetary prize in the region for a short film. The jury (consisting of Anne Marte Nygaard, of Norwegian distribution company Arthaus; Croatian producer Tibor Keser; and director Ivan Grgur) decided to hand a Special Mention to the Croatian flick Hysterical Fit of Laughter by Matija Gluščević and Dušan Zorić.
Meanwhile, the Youth Jury rewarded Igor Jelinović‘s IFFR title Honey Bunny, which had its Croatian premiere at the opening of the festival, among the features and Portuguese director Francisca Alarcão’s O among the student shorts – a new prize, established this year.
The festival’s industry platform, geared towards education, included several workshops. Children worked on their first short animated films with Hana Tintor (animations), Petra Cicvarić (developing the story) and Ivan Đuričić (recording the audio), who also ran the dubbing workshop “Give Your Voice for the Cinema!”. Director-producer Marina Andree Škop led the Script Shop for the development of feature films for children and young audiences aged 5-15, while Ivana and Julija Antunović, of Split Nomad Gallery, ran a poster-design workshop. The “Turn Your Idea into a Game” workshop, in partnership with the Croatian Game Developers Association HU-IZ-VI, was complemented by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre’s “Cinema, Game, Film” programme, including the screening of the short film Professor Balthazar: Hannibal’s Alps and followed by the presentation of the new video game Professor Balthazar. The Self Tape Workshop for actors was guided by acclaimed casting directors Kate Rhodes James and Francesco Vedovati, and ten students from the Arts Academy in Split and the International Burch University of Sarajevo made a short film that was screened on the final night at Cinema Gripe.
The full list of FMFS award winners is as follows:
FMFS Hook for Best Official Competition Feature Film
Sundays – Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (Spain)
Special Mention
Maspalomas – Aitor Arregi, José Mari Goenaga (Spain)
FMFS Hook for Best Mediterranean Short Film
No Skate! – Guil Sela (France)
Special Mention
Hysterical Fit of Laughter – Matija Gluščević, Dušan Zorić (Croatia)
Youth Jury Award
Honey Bunny – Igor Jelinović (Croatia/Serbia)
Youth Jury Student Short Film Award
O – Francisca Alarcão (Portugal)
Audience Award – Feature Film
Żejtune – Alex Camilleri (Malta/Germany/Qatar)
Audience Award – Short Film
No Skate! – Guil Sela
