The 11th Budapest International Documentary Film Festival was a great success: winners

The 11th Budapest International Documentary Film Festival awards were presented on the evening of 1 February. Among the winners of the category’s top prize was the documentary film The Agent of Happiness by Dorottya Zurbó and Arun Bhattarai, while The Blue Pelican and Sergei Loznitsa’s Invasion, about everyday life in Ukraine under Russian occupation, also won the top prize.
The 11th BIDF was a great success, with 40% more viewers than last year, according to the organisers. At the festival’s awards ceremony on 1 February, six foreign films and two Hungarian films won top prizes. The awards were decided by a total of 43 juries in 8 categories. The festival runs in Budapest and 11 cities in the countryside until Sunday evening. Based on the audience votes of the 250 screenings, the Budapest and national audience awards will be announced later by the BIDF directors.
The winners of the 11th Budapest International Documentary Film Festival
Everyday Heroes section:
- Main Prize: Invasion (dir.: Sergei Loznitsa)
- Special Prize: The Black Garden (dir.: Alexis Pazoumian)
Alexis Pazoumian, Alexis Paziou (Alexis Pazoumian):
- Grand Prize: A New Kind of Wilderness (dir.: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen) / More about the film here.
- Special Prize: Libra-Swing (dir.: Alina Maksimenko)
Everyday Fears section:
- Grand Prize: The Forest(dir.: Lidia Duda)
- Special Prize: Rekviem for a nomadic tribe (dir.: Marjan Khosravi)
Everyday struggles section:
- Grand Prix: Dear, dear loved ones (dir.: Jury Rechinsky)
- Special Prize: I am, to be (dir.: Juan Meija Botero)
Everyday desires section:
- Grand Prize: Agent of Happiness(dir.: Dorottya Zurbó)
- Special Prize: Monogamy (dir.: Ohad Milstein)
Hungarian competition programme:
- Main Prize: Blue Pelican (dir.: László Csáki)
- Special Prize: Invisible Ropes (dir.: Ágota Varga)
Retired Jury Prize:
- The sky above Zenica (dir.: Nanna Frank Møller, Zlatko Pranjic)
Student Jury Award:
- Fakir (dir.: Roman Duris)
- related article: 11th Budapest International Documentary Festival kicks off with a tribute to real-life stories – PHOTOS + VIDEO