Audience award
20.07.2026.
On Monday, July 20, at the Summer Stage in Palić, the Underground Spirit Award was presented to filmmaker and artist Helena Wittmann. The award is presented in recognition of exceptional work in the field of independent cinema and a distinctive artistic vision developed outside the mainstream film industry.
The award was presented to Helena Wittmann by the festival’s executive producer, Ilija Tatić.
Accepting the award at the Summer Stage, Wittmann said that the concept of the Underground Spirit Award was something she strongly identified with. "I believe that we must remain steadfast, but in a constructive way. I hope that I will be able to stay true to that. Thank you for having me here and for presenting this award, which I believe is very important, especially in times like these," said the award laureate.
Earlier, at a press conference, Wittmann emphasized that the cinema remains the best place to experience film. "In the cinema, we have excellent sound, high-quality projection, focused audiences, and a shared viewing experience. Of course, I also work on projects that are closer to installations and are intended for different kinds of spaces. I enjoy thinking about different ways of experiencing art. But the cinema remains a very precious and special place for me. It is increasingly rare today for people to come together and share the same perception of time. This is precisely what film can offer. Film can shape time, and I find that incredibly fascinating," said Wittmann.
As part of the Underground Spirit Award Laureate Homage, Helena Wittmann’s short films "21.3° C," "Ada Kaleh," "The Wild," "Later," "The Swell," and "A Thousand Waves Away," were screened that same evening in a programme block at the "Mira Banjac" Hall of the Abazija Cinema. Her film “Drift” was screened on the opening day of the festival.
Helena Wittmann’s films, among them her debut feature “Drift“ (2017) and her latest feature “Human Flowers Of Flesh” (2022), have been presented internationally at film festivals and exhibitions, including the Locarno Film Festival, the Venice International Film Festival, Tate Modern, MoMA, the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Viennale, FIDMarseille, and FICUNAM, and have received numerous awards. She taught at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts from 2015 to 2018 and has worked as a mentor at the Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola in San Sebastián, Spain. In addition to her own films, she creates installation works and collaborates with various directors and artists as a cinematographer.
The European Film Festival Palić is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities, the City of Subotica, the European Union through the Creative Europe MEDIA program, as well as numerous partners and media sponsors.
For more than two decades, Gorki List has been a valued partner of the European Film Festival Palić, serving both as an integral part of its visual identity and as the sponsor of the Gorki List Audience Award, which encourages audiences to engage more deeply with the films presented at the festival.
