'Wind, Talk to Me' wins three AFA awards in Tivat

It began on a cable car. On Friday, October 23, nominees, organizers, guests and partners gathered on the Kotor-Lovcen cable car to open the second edition of the AFA Awards, the Film and TV Awards of the Adriatic Region, and the next evening the ceremony moved down to Porto Montenegro in Tivat. There, Stefan Djordjevic’s film “Wind, Talk to Me” took three awards: best film, best director and best debut film.

The festival runs through October 25, and the awards are given by the Film and TV Academy of the Adriatic Region. Its members, more than 800 directors, actors, screenwriters and producers, decided on the nominations and the winners. The Academy was founded by the Sarajevo Film Festival, the Zagreb Film Festival and the Belgrade-based Festival of Auteur Film.

Who won at the AFA Awards?

Besides Djordjevic’s film, these awards were handed out:

• best actress: Noomi Rapace, for her role in “Majka” by Teona Strugar Mitevska
• best actor: Andrija Kuzmanovic, for his role in “Jugo Florida” by Vladimir Tagic
• rising star: Arif Jakup, for “DJ Ahmet” by Georgi M. Unkovski
• best screenplay: Hana Jusic, for “Bog nece pomoci”
• best TV series: the Bosnian-Herzegovinian “Kotlina,” created by Amra Baksic Camo and Danis Tanovic
• best actress in a series: Snezana Vidovic, and best actor Fedja Stukan, both for “Kotlina”

All three television awards went to “Kotlina.”

What is “Wind, Talk to Me” about?

Djordjevic first wanted to make a documentary about his mother, her illness and the way she faced her own mortality. After she died he dropped the idea, and what came out of it was a film that mixes real family relationships, autobiographical elements and staged scenes. The director plays himself, and the cast includes members of his actual family, among them Negrica and Bosko Djordjevic and Ljiljana and Budimir Jovanovic.

At its center is Stefan, a 34-year-old who returns to his family after his mother’s death to celebrate his grandmother’s birthday and finish the film he had started shooting. On the road he hits a stray dog with his car, feels guilty, and decides to save it and take it along. Caring for the injured animal gradually becomes tied to his attempt to accept his mother’s passing.

The film runs one hundred minutes. It had its world premiere in 2025 in the Tiger Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and in August 2025 it won the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature film at the Sarajevo Film Festival. In November 2025 it also took the Golden Cart at the 23rd Zagreb Film Festival. The producer is Dragana Jovovic, and the film was made by the Belgrade company Non-Aligned Films, in co-production with Slovenia’s SPOK Films and Staragara and Croatia’s Restart.

What did the organizers say on Lovcen?

The Academy’s president, Mirsad Purivatra, spoke at the opening:

“The AFA Awards are a recognition of outstanding achievement in film and television series, given by professionals to professionals. We are glad this event has found its home in this beautiful part of Montenegro. I am sure that Porto Montenegro, Kotor and Tivat will remain an unmissable destination for many film professionals in the years to come”

Ana Ivanovic, executive director of the Kotor-Lovcen Cable Car, spoke about the place where the crowd gathered:

“We are glad that this year’s edition of the Adriatic Film Awards began right on the Kotor-Lovcen cable car, in an atmosphere of togetherness and of film and television creators from across the region meeting. We believe the cable car is more than a tourist attraction and that it is a place of meeting, cultural exchange and the birth of new ideas. Film has a special power to present places and their stories to audiences around the world. We hope the view from Lovcen will stay in our guests’ fond memory and perhaps inspire them to tell some new stories”

The main partners of the event are Porto Montenegro and the company Strategist.

What is the new award for cinema distribution?

This year, for the first time, an award was given for outstanding achievement in cinema distribution, meaning the highest box office revenue. The decision to introduce it was made by the Academy’s Board, which includes representatives of the three founding festivals. It went to the Croatian comedy “Svadba” by Igor Seregi, produced by Ivan Kelava and Marko Jocic.

Kuzmanovic and Tagic’s first feature

Kuzmanovic won for his role as Zoran, a man who works at a television channel with reality programming and whose life is interrupted by news that his father, with whom he has had no contact for years, is terminally ill. “Jugo Florida” is Vladimir Tagic’s first feature film, produced by Marija Stojanovic of the Belgrade company Sense Production, in co-production with Croatia’s Eclectica. For the same role Kuzmanovic won the Heart of Sarajevo for best actor at the Sarajevo Film Festival last year.