We have announced the names of the winners of this year's competition at the final press conference of the 8th Zagreb Film Festival: the jury awarded Austrian-German film The Robber by Benjamin Heisenberg with the Golden Pram in the feature film category.

Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza's film Rita won the award for the best short film. The best documentary film of the 8th ZFF comes from Italy too – Me, My Gipsy Family And Woody Allen by Laura Halilovic, and the best film from the Checkers programme is And Then I See Tanja by Juraj Lerotiæ. Tonight at 8pm at the Europa Cinema will be held the award ceremony and the closing ceremony, within which Danis Tanoviæ's film Circus Columbia will be screened.

WINNERS OF THE 8TH ZAGREB FILM FESTIVAL

FEATURE FILM PROGRAMME:

THE ROBBER / DER RÄUBER / Benjamin Heisenberg / Austria, Germany Golden Pram for the best feature film and 4000 € 'For its subtle psychological surgery on extreme human behaviour.'

MEDAL OF HONOR / MEDALIA DE ONOARE / Calin Peter Netzer / Romania
Special mention in the feature film category
'For a seemingly simple mixture of politics, tragic and humor with a scent of warmth and humanity.'

SHORT FILM PROGRAMME:

RITA / Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia / Italy
Golden Pram for the best short film and 1000 €
'For its imaginative and cinematographic reflection of the inner world of a blind girl.'

HAPPINESS / GLÜCK / Ĺ ejla Kameriæ / Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany
Special mention in the short film category
'For its original way of taking the audience on a trip through the past, present and future.'

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMME:

ME, MY GYPSY FAMILY AND WOODY ALLEN / IO, LA MIA FAMIGLIA ROM E WOODY ALLEN / Laura Halilovic / Italy
Golden Pram for the best documentary film and 1000 €
'It is fascinating how the author, easily and with virtuosity, deals with such a complex and difficult topic. The film does not conform to the steretypical representations, uses a strong film language, and tells an intimate story about growing up in a Romany family. It is a brave showdown with the processes which are taking place around us. It makes us wonder just how tolerant we really are.'

CHILDREN OF KAROSTA / KAROSTAS BERNI Janis Jurkovskis / Estonia, Latvia Special mention in the documentary film category
'It is a visually stunning miniature about a town which is disappearing. The centre of the film are forgotten places, forgotten people and families. All the hopelessness is manifested through children's play, in which innocence and carelessness give in to aggression and brutality. The film attracts attention with the author's very formulated and explicit film language.'

CHECKERS:

THEN I SEE TANJA / Juraj Lerotiæ
Golden Pram for the best Croatian film in the Checkers programme
'In a very good year for the Checkers programme, there is one film which stood out from the rest of the films within the competition. We do not know why it was made in this particular form, and we have no wish to find it out either, because it functions magnificently on all levels, firstly as a screenplay – which is the starting point for all good films. We award the way in which the director connected great acting, music, editing and photography to create a flawless whole, thus pinning us down to the screen with the story itself, the story which is multilayered and unpredictable, and one of the most beautiful love stories we have seen in a long time. We reward the bravery, within which we recognise the original expression of the author, whose quality is its uniqueness, but its best quality is that it communicates completely universally.'

THE JURIES
FEATURE FILM AND SHORT FILM PROGRAMME:
Martin Schweighofer, Managing Director of the Austrian Film Commission
Ludmila Cvikova, Program Director of the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands
Adrian Sitaru, director and producer

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMME:
Marina Andree, director
Sergej Kreso, journalist and director
Gaby Babiæ, Director of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in Wiesbaden

CHECKERS:
Uroš Živanoviæ, director
Mirko Pivèeviæ, director of photography
Hüseyin Tabak, director