At the Awards Ceremony of the 10^th edition of CinEast (Central and Eastern European Film Festival in Luxembourg, 5-22 October 2017, www.cineast.lu), held at the Cinémathèque of Luxembourg on Friday 20 October, the International Jury awarded the Grand Prix to the Polish film Birds Are Singing In Kigali by Joanna Kos-Krauze & Krzysztof Krauze, and the Special Jury Prize to the Romanian film Soldiers. A Story From Ferentari by Serbian director Ivana Mladenović. The Critics’ Prize, awarded by the Press Jury, went to the film Directions by the Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev. The Audience Award’s winner is the film The Constitution by the Croatian director Rajko Grlić. The International Jury of CinEast 2017 was composed of Anne Fontaine (French film director born in Luxembourg, President of the Jury), Adrian Titieni (Romanian actor), Bady Minck (Luxembourgish director and producer), Philippe Carcassone (French producer) and Oliver Baumgarten (programme director of the Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival in Saarbrücken).

Anne Fontaine, the president of the International Jury, commented the jury’s decision regarding the Grand Prix winner Birds Are Singing In Kigali as follows: “The CinEast 2017 Grand Prix has been unanimously awarded to the film 'Birds Are Singing In Kigali' by Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze. A moving film whose great mastery never stifles the emotion. The Jury particularly appreciated the exceptional performances of the actresses.”

As regards the Special Jury Prize for Soldiers. A Story From Ferentari, the jury member Oliver Baumgarten said: “It is a truly dazzling achievement how debut director Ivana Mladenovic succeeds in leading her amateur actors to be completely absorbed in their characters and the story. A dynamic hand-held camera and the free-floating cast make this love story a thrilling experience for the audience. Our Special Jury Prize goes to ‘Soldiers. A Story From Ferentari’ by Ivana Mladenovic.”

The Press Jury justified their verdict – Critics’ Prize for Directions - with these words: “For the interesting and rich variety of topics that it addresses, for its geographical focus, and for the sheer intelligence and originality of its narrative, the 2017 Critics‘ Prize is bestowed upon Stephan Komandarev, for his film ‘Directions’.” (Matthew Boas)

The film The Constitution by Rajko Grlić received the best results in the votes given by the audience and is, therefore, the winner of the Audience Award. Finally, the Audience Awards for the Best Short Films were awarded to:  Into The Blue by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović (fiction, Croatia), Gamer Girl by Irena Jukić Pranjić (animation, Croatia) and Close Ties by Zofia Kowalewska (documentary, Poland).

The Awards Ceremony was followed by a screening of the film Agnus Dei / Les innocentes directed by the President of the Jury, the French director Anne Fontaine.

The 10^th CinEast film festival, presenting 60 feature and 40 short films from 19 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, runs until 22 October.

The photos from the ceremony are available here and stills from the winning films here.

Press site with all details [link], programme in PDF [link], logo [link], poster [link], festival presentation [link], film stills [link]

Details about films are available on the official website www.cineast.lu

CinEast on Facebook: www.facebook.com/cineastfestival

The CinEast 2017 festival is organised by CinEast asbl in collaboration with Cinémathèque, Neimënster, the Kinepolis Group, Ancien Cinéma and others. Main partners: City of Luxembourg, Ministry of Culture of Luxembourg, Film Fund Luxembourg and Kulczyk Investments.

Website: www.cineast.lu