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"Aleksandar Lifka" and "Underground Spirit" awards presented at the 30th Palić European Film Festival

21.07.2023.

On Thursday, July 20, at the Palić Summer Stage, the Aleksandar Lifka Аward asigned by the Palić European Film Festival in the category of foreign creators was presented to director Andreas Dresen, the regional Aleksandar Lifka Award to actor Nikola Ristanovski, while the Underground Spirit Award was presented to multimedia artist Maria Cañas.

Miroslav Mogorović, the program director of the Festival, presented the award to Andreas Dresen and said: "It is a great honor and pleasure for me to be in a position to present the award for contribution to European cinema to Mr. Andreas Dresen, not only to highlight his great contribution to European cinema with this small award, but also to thank him for his friendship with our Festival. I am very glad that he is here with us again, and I know that this friendship will continue." Andreas Dresen thanked the organizers for the invitation and addressed the audience: "This is a wonderful place, with wonderful people. It's always a pleasure to meet you. There are a lot of festivals where they tell you how you can meet people and connect with the audience. But here, in Palić, it is a reality. It's true. We talk to each other, drink together, watch movies together. It is a rarity in the whole of Europe".

Radoslav Zelenović, director of the Palić European Film Festival, presented the regional Aleksandar Lifka Award to Nikola Ristanovski. "In the thirty-year history of our Festival, we have always tried to take a step forward. Sometimes it was more, sometimes less visible. But the decision three years ago, to establish the regional Aleksandar Lifka Award, was received with great enthusiasm in the entire region," said Radoslav Zelenović and pointed out that he is handing this year's award to Mr. Ristanovski with great professional and personal satisfaction. Upon receiving the award, Nikola Ristanovski said: "After a long time, I am really excited about an award, because I felt that some of the stories we create still make sense, that we should still share them. I want to congratulate first of all this year's award laureates, and it is a great honor to be in their company. Also, I want to mention all previous laureates of this very serious award, because many of them played a big role in my formation. Thank you very much!"

Ilija Tatić, executive producer of the Festival, presented the Underground Spirit Award to Maria Cañas, who addressed the audience with the words: "I thank Ilija Tatić and the entire festival team. Very kind of you. Thank you all".

Andreas Dresen, this year's Aleksandar Lifka Award laureate in the category of foreign authors, was born in 1963 in East Germany In a theatrical family. He made his first amateur films back in 1979. In 1984/85, he worked as a sound engineer at Schwerin Theatre before completing a traineeship at the DEFA Studio for Feature Films and working as an assistant director to Günter Reisch. From 1986 to 1991, he studied directing at the Konrad Wolf Academy for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Since 1992, he has been working as a freelance author and director. His debut film Silent Country (1992), a tragicomedy about events in East Germany at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, earned him both the Hessen Film and Cinema Prize and the German Critics’ Award. Followed a number of his award-winning films with the latest one Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W.Bush (2022) premiered in Berlinale Competition and also screened at EFF Palić Official Selection. He is a member of the Academy of Arts, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the European Film Academy and founding member of the German Film Academy.

Nikola Ristanovski was born in 1969 in Ostrava (Czechoslovakia). He lives in Macedonia since 1978. In 1993, he graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje in the class of Professor Vladimir Milčin. He played on most important stages in the region and performed many notable roles. He has been the champion of the Macedonian National Theater since 1993 and is currently the champion of the National Theater in Belgrade. As for cinematography, he played in more than fifty films and series in the region and achieved many notable roles such as Hadzi Zamfir (Zona Zamfirova), Viktor Kolar (The Only Way Out), Dr. Viktor (On Therapy), Trendafilov (The Liberation of Skopje) ... Ristanovski is the most awarded Macedonian actor, with a large number of awards received for performances produced outside the country, like Grand Prix for the best male role at the 18th International Actor's Festival, Nikšić, Montenegro 2022, the Golden Dolphin for the best actor at the Bosphorus Film Festival in Istanbul (for the role in The Needle under the Threshold), Sterija's Award for acting achievement, (Ahmed Nurudin - Dervish and Death) 2009, Actor of the Year in Macedonia, 2006, Golden Laurel Wreath, (Don Juan ), MESS Sarajevo, 2006, etc.

The works of Maria Cañas are full of irony, with a dominant critical and contradictory sense in installations and video works that explore the boundaries between fiction and reality. In her works she deals with recordings and collected audiovisual material that presents critical discourses related to collective imaginations about traditions, stereotypes or genders, using classical and experimental film, found footage technique and numerous resources that characterize her transgressive, eclectic and ironic approach. The arrival of Maria Cañas to EFF Palić was supported by the artist mobility program within the PICE fund of the Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) organization.