JURY DECLARATION:

"Early Feelings" is an outstanding short story in the 2026 selection. Without much words, it develops its characters perfectly, grafts different cultures from world fads to more traditional ones, it is a story of children growing up and discovering their path by their own, without being necessarily the best. The audience, like us, will probably be connected with the first time they were confronted with the death of known ones, the confusion and novelty of the appropriated social conventions, the misreadings, opportunities and interruptions in their expected orderly life. Their small dramas were invisible for the grown-ups, more attuned and experienced in the "main event". The end of this movie is enigmatic and delightful. Perfect!

JURY DECLARATION:

We award the Night Award to "Common Pear" for providing a fascinating cinematographic journey on the delicate boundaries between ambiguity and deep ecological complexity. The screenplay wraps a profound blend of documentary and fiction in hypnotic, rich colors, evoking Lynch- and Kubrick-like sceneries of a somewhat dystopian future, unifying with the grounded realism of past fruit growers. The film conveys an enigmatic yet subtle message, balancing transcendental elements against the very real challenges of climate change, rampant digitalization, and the tragic loss of generational knowledge. A central strength that kept our minds moving is the subtle balance between the coincident ambiguity of pessimistically hinting at the future, as dystopian it might seem, at the same time also contains the optimistic examination of the past and the reviviscence of previously existing knowledge.

JURY DECLARATION:

"Skin on Skin" is an well built and powerful story which always would deserve an highlight. The context, which risks to be common to many countries, is people who want to work on other countries where they have no official standing, are targets for exploitation. Confronted with the choice between having rights and dignity or having work, the need for the last leads sometimes to servitude and surrendering of their freedoms. We in the "developed" societies know there are still slaves in the world. What we may not be aware is that they are much more near us than what we would thought. For bringing this reality to light, we award the Edward Snowden Award to "Skin on Skin".

JURY DECLARATION:

We award the Jury Award to "Slet 1988" for its stunning cinematic way of working out the fundamental contrast of separation and union. The highly cinematic narrative brilliantly superimposes monumental spectacles of a rigid, fading socialist state and architecture with the smooth, avant-garde vulnerability of an aging dancer's body. The film achieves a profound tension by clashing the booming music of the public, utopian mass performance of a late-Jugoslavian slet against the intimate silence of a young girl’s private diary, masterfully balancing the strength of a collective youth against the fracturing weakness of a dying state. The movie weaves the fine, deeply moving details of an individual life into a grand architectural decay that prophetically could even be viewed as a mirror for the fragile union of today's Europe. This haunting piece of cinema proves how the smallest stories can perfectly reflect the giant, turbulent shifts of history from socialist collectivism to the rising tide of post-Jugoslavian ethno-nationalism.

JURY DECLARATION:

In an imaginary near future, artificial moons orbit the Earth, bathing the planet in perpetual light. A reassuring yet authoritative female voice, emanating from nowhere and present everywhere, provides instructions on how to adapt to this new reality. As we follow the daily routine of an elderly couple confined to their apartment, each in a separate room, the film gradually begins to haunt us. How long will it be before we are actually forced to live in an endless day devoted to production and consumption, instructed on how to breathe and how to feel? The meticulously crafted cinematography and the serene aesthetic that pervades this dystopian world lull the viewer into submission, mirroring the complacency with which we move towards a future of environmental destruction and socio-technological control. For its originality and the quiet assurance with which it portrays humanity’s demise, The "Moon Also Rises" deserves a Special Mention in the Signs Award.

JURY DECLARATION:

We award a Mention in the category of the Signs Award to "O" for its original and important showcase of the problem of alcoholism and the cyclical and exhausting nature and negative consequences of addiction. Captured in stark, uncompromising black-and-white long takes, and transported via brilliantly outstanding performance of the main actor, the film treats the self-destruction of its fragile protagonist with profound love and humanism. The topic achieves specificity by transforming a mundane task into a stress test of inner turmoil, brilliantly unveiling how deep the fall into shame and isolation can be, even from seemingly small social cliffs.