The winners of 16th Vilnius international film festival were announced during the official closing ceremony in the evening of March 31 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

A film by Romanian director Bogdan George Apetri „Outbound“ (Periferic) was announced the winner of competition programme „New Europe – new names“. The statue and the monetary prize by Vilnius city was awarded to film‘s associate producer Mihaela Popescu.

The special mention was given to Turkish actor Bartu Kucukcaglayan for his role in film „Majority“ (Cogunluk). Second special mention was given to the actors of Slovak film „The House“, the prize was awarded to the director of the movie Zuzana Liova.

The jury of competition programme was headed by director Milcho Manchevskij, other members were: Nadia Turincev, producer, Alante Kavaitė, director and script writer, Gary McVey, director of American cinema foundation and Fred Kelemen, director and cinematographer.

CICAE jury also evaluated the films of competition programme and decided that the best film to fit into European independent film theatres is the film „On the path“ (Na putu) by Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic. The award was given to Croatian actress Zrinka Cvitesic. The members of CICAE jury, who came to Vilnius, are - Tejinder Jouhal from Institute of Contemporary art (ICA) London, Peter Muscatics, communication director of Hungary's leading international film festival CineFest and Christopher Gatt, General Manager of St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Malta.

16th Vilnius international film festival‘s audience award went to Canadian drama „Incendies“, by Denis Villeneuve. The audience in Vilnius liked this film so much, that all the screenings of this film were a sold-out and not even four additional screenings were enough.

For the first time this year the audience voted for best Lithuanian movie. The audience decided, that the best Lithuanian movie this year is „Knygnešys“ (Book smuggler) by Jonas Trukanas.

The best debut Lithuanian director was awarded for the second year and this time the award went to Mantas Kvedaravičius and his documentary “Barzakh”.

Photo "Barzakh"