WINNER: JURY GRAND PRIX OF FIRST FRAME / PRVI KADAR FILM FESTIVAL, SARAJEVO
SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA. – The jury of the 13th Prvi Kadar International Film Festival awarded Arthur Balder’s AMERICAN MIRROR: INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY with the Grand Prix, Best Picture of the Festival 2019.
The Jury President was Dragan Elcic, director, film critic, Professor of Film Directing at and Dean of Belgrade Academy of Arts, Serbia. His films have been selected for Oscars representing Serbia. The other two members where Branko Lazic, film director, Srdjan Savic, film critic.
In a joint statement, published, among others, by RTRS.tv, the jury stated about the film publicly: “American Mirror: Intimations of Immortality crosses borders and expands the forms of modern documentary film making. It’s a dynamic, visually sumptuous, cleverly directed film that leaves you breathless and enthralled long after you watch it. A film that transcends genres and establishes its own rules of film narration.”
Dragan Elcic was born in Sarajevo in 1959. He is the director of numerous documentaries, television shows, series, etc. He is a professor of directing at the Belgrade Academy of Arts and is one of the most awarded documentaries directors in Serbia.
He has directed over 250 documentaries and short films, 200 different documentaries, one feature film, two feature documentaries, two TV dramas, 4 TV films and seven feature TV series with a total of 106 episodes of various lengths.
Elcic won 57 awards. Selection of awards: Representative of Serbia for the Academy Award / 2001; Special Award at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen – Germany / 1999; Grand Prix – Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival / Belgrade / 1996; the Golden Knight Award / Moscow / 1996; award for directing the documentary Alpe Adria, Trieste, Italy
1984 Graduated Political Science from the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo Graduated in Performing Arts from the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo.
1996. Under the mentorship of Professor Stefan Stefanov, he specialized at the Slavic University in Sofia. Topic Title: “Polyphony on Film”.
1998. Ph.D. Master’s degree in Moscow. Master’s thesis title: Documentary film in extreme conditions.
A 2001 Head of the Department of Television Directing “Sava Mrmak” at the Belgrade Academy of Arts.
2001 – 2006 Associate Professor at the Department of Television Directing “Sava Mrmak” in Belgrade.
Since 2006 he has been full-time professor at the Department of Television Directing “Sava Mrmak” in Belgrade.
