The winner of the Adriatic Audience Award for the best film of the Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region is Alma Viva by Cristele Alves Meira from Portugal. The best film was selected by gathering the audience votes from the Sarajevo Film Festival, Zagreb Film Festival, Auteur Film Festival, Ljubljana International Film Festival and Herceg Novi Film Festival, along with the votes of the audience who could watch this film online at the VoD platform ondemand.kinomeetingpoint.ba.

The award ceremony was held at the 28th Auteur Film Festival and the winner was announced by Jovan Marjanović, director of the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Igor Stanković, director of the Auteur Film Festival, said at the award ceremony: “The Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region is a very important segment of the Auteur Film Festival for a second year in a row. The mission of the festivals within the network is promotion of European values concerning film, talent and everything that European diversity brings. This network was establisked on Jovan Marjanović’s initiative.”

Cristele Alves Meira expressed her gratitude for the award and said via email: “I am very happy to receive this award. I don’t make films for awards, but it’s very encouraging when that happens. Much love to the audience of all festivals.”

The aim of the Adriatic Audience Award is promotion and increased visibility of European cinema. The award will enable the distribution of Alma Viva to the cinemas across the former Yugoslavia.

Alma Viva follows little Salomé who returns to her native village in the Portuguese mountains like every previous summer. The girl’s carefree holiday is suddenly interrupted by a sudden death of her grandmother. While the adults are fighting over organizing the funeral, Salomé is haunted by the spirit of a woman claimed to have been a witch. 

Cristele Alves Meira was trained as an actress, but started her career as a theatre director. She subsequently directed her first documentary film Som & Morabeza in Cape Verde and another one in Angola titled Born in Luanda. Her shorts were filmed in Portugal: Sol Brancothen Campo de Víboras, screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and Invisível Herói. Alma Viva is her first feature film.

The Adriatic Audience Award was designed by Srđan Stefanović (1985), a sculptor and painter.