The second award MFF Best Short goes to the film 'You Can't Automate Me' directed by Katarina Jazbec from Slovenia, while the audience selected the film ‘Babajanja’ Croatian director Ante Zlatko Stolica for the Audience Award. 

The jury, composed of Mateja Valentinčič, Yevhen Stepanenko and Dragan Nikolić, stated in their explanation that this film is an intensive love story, but also a story about heroin addiction, which subtly shows not only psychological but also the social context in which it was created. 

“This is an impeccably made documentary in which the director and her team have very precisely and effectively used all the available means of film and editing to tell a very personal and tragic story, which, despite what is happening in modern Russia, accurately depicts a global reflection on the desire to live in reality, even if that reality leads us to death”, the jury stated. 

The jury also awarded two Special mentions – the film 'Reconciliation' by Marija Zidar from Slovenia and to the film 'Trenches' by French director Loup Bureau. They said that at first sight the film ‘Reconciliation’ seems like a story about Albanian blood feud, but actually it is an in depth study of a patriarchal society and its ethic values between tradition, religion and modernity in post socialist transition. 

“The microcosm of an intimate family tragedy that mediators, representatives of various social institutions with their own agendas are trying to calm down reflects the politics of contemporary global conflicts”, they pointed. 

With a reduced and impressive visual approach, the film ‘Trenches’ takes us from the inside into the war and conflict that is now turning into a global catastrophe. We have been drawn directly into the trenches of the Ukrainian forces, which are made up of ordinary people, young men and women who could live somewhere else and lead a normal life, but they had to leave their daily life in order to defend their country.

“Exceptional description, directly from the inside, of all the things that the ordinary citizens in Ukraine had gone through at the beginning of the conflict, and which today grows into a bigger and bigger tragedy”, the explanation stated.  

The jury in short documentary competition, composed of Ivan Živković Žika, Hillel Rate and Iva Kraljević decided that the MFF Best Short award goes to the film 'You Can't Automate me' directed by Katarina Jazebc from Slovenia. As they said in their statement the director of the film created a full world through the film with the use of diverse elements of sound and image.

“Her female perspective on a complex and unique group of men is evident in every frame of the film. With gentleness and respect, she brings to the screen exciting male figures and produces a film with a unique and coherent voice”, the jury said. 

The Special Mention belongs to the film ‘Carols’ by Jenny Tsiropoulou, who, as the jury said, by using a unique point of view and curiosity, combines physical and spiritual elements in a moving way and manages to draw a complex portrait of a character that evokes compassion and respect at the same time. 

The short documentary film ‘S vremena na vrijeme’ and short narrative ‘Ono naše' created at the film workshop MFF School were screened at the closing ceremony.   

Tomislav Topić, the director of the festival, signing off the 23rd edition of the festival, thanked everyone who supported this festival in this year and in previous years, the film workers who supported this edition of the MFF as well, the sponsors and the audience. 

"We spent a whole year putting together this film mosaic and I think we did a good job. It is only mine to declare this 23rd edition of the Mediteran Film Festival closed and I hope that this story will continue,'' said Topić. 

At the 23rd Mediteran Film Festival, which took place from October 11 to 15 in Široki Brijeg, twenty films were screened in competition. 45 films, several world and festival premieres, were screened at the festival. After the awards ceremony, the 23rd MFF closed with the screening of the documentary film 'Moonage Daydream', about the great artist David Bowie.