The award ceremony of the 72nd Pula Film Festival took place on Wednesday evening at the Istrian National Theatre. Restart had two films in the festival’s competition, the majority Croatian film “Fiume o morte!” by Igor Bezinović and “Wishing on a Star” by Peter Kerekes in the minority co-production competition. “Fiume o morte!” won the largest number of individual Golden Arenas in the Croatian competition, six in total: Igor Bezinović won the Golden Arena for direction, Vanja Jambrović and Tibor Keser for production, Tajči Čekada and Manuela Paladin Šabanović for costume design, Sara Jakupec for casting, Anton Spazzapan for set design and Ivana Pralija for makeup. The decision on these and other awards was made by the jury, which was composed of cinematographer and director Silvestr Kolbas, actress Tihana Lazović, actor Jank Popović Volarić, editor Tomislav Pavlic and screenwriter Jelena Paljan. “Fiume o morte!” turned out to be the best-rated film by journalists and film critics with an average rating of 4.71. Also, during the Pula Film Festival, director Igor Bezinović was presented with the Vedran Šamanović Award. This is an award given by professional film associations to a filmmaker who, in any branch of film art, in short or feature length, has expanded the boundaries of cinematic expression in Croatian cinema with an innovative approach. With its screening in Pula, “Fiume o morte!” surpassed the box office figure of 30,000 viewers in Croatia, making it the most-watched Croatian film in cinemas in 2025. Restart was represented at the industry part of the festival – Pula Pro as part of the pitching program “Films in the postproduction”. Restart’s minority co-production, project “Yugo goes to America” by Filip Grujić and Aleksa Borković, was presented at that pitch, and the participation was also rewarded with a prize for sound post-production in a studio in Prague in the amount of 5,000 euros.
