Big Golden Arena for Best Film

Big Golden Arena for Best Film
Presented by	Pula Film Festival Jury
Country	Yugoslavia (1957–1990) Croatia (1992–present)
First awarded	1957 (unofficially) 1961 (officially)
Currently held by	Just Between Us
Official website	pulafilmfestival.hr

Main article: Pula Film Festival

The Golden Arena awards were established in 1955 as the Yugoslav national film awards presented annually at the Pula Film Festival in Pula, Croatia, with the Big Golden Arena for Best Film its main prize. From 1955 to 1990 the awards were the Yugoslav cinema equivalent of the Academy Awards. In 1991 the festival was cancelled due to the breakup of Yugoslavia,^[A] but then resumed in 1992 as the Croatian film awards festival (thereby excluding films and filmmakers from present-day Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia). It has been held in this format every year since, although no prizes were awarded at the 1994 edition.^[B]

The festival's competition program usually includes screenings of all locally produced feature films made in the preceding 12 months (which is made possible due to the local film industry's relatively low output), so everyone involved in making them automatically qualifies for the Golden Arena awards. Therefore there are no Academy Award-style lists of nominees announced prior to the actual awarding ceremony. The awards are given by a jury of five or six members which is named before each festival edition by the festival's managing board, and it usually consists of prominent filmmakers and film critics.

Although the festival was established in 1954, the award for best film was first awarded in 1957 - prior to the 1957 edition, the festival had separate critics' choice and audience awards for best film screened at the festival. Until 1990, the award was always given to the film's production company or companies, except in 1981 when the award was merged with the Golden Arena for Best Director and both the director and production companies of the winning film (The Fall of Italy by Lordan Zafranović) were credited with the award. Overall, Jadran Film of Zagreb and Avala Film of Belgrade were the most successful studios in the Yugoslav period (1957–1990) winning 11 and 8 awards respectively.

In the 1990s the award was intermittently merged with the Best Director award, until 1999 when the old fomat was briefly re-introduced. Between 2003 and 2007 film directors were credited with the Best Film award, while still being eligible for the separate Best Director award (although on four out of five occasions in this period the same director won both awards for the same film). Since 2008 the award is given to the film's producer.

1 List of winners
2 Footnotes
3 References
4 External links

List of winners

1955–1980

The following table lists all films which were winners of the top three prizes in the period from 1957 to 1980. On four occasions two films shared the same prize - in 1961 and 1965 two films shared the Big Golden Arena, in 1966 two films shared the runner-up award and in 1967 two films shared the third-place award. In addition to this, the 1965 second place prize was not awarded. Shared awards are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Award changes

In 1954 there was no festival jury and separate Critics' Choice and Audience awards were given. The Critics' Choice Award for Best Film went to František Čap's film Vesna, and the Audience Award for Best Film went to Fedor Hanžeković's film Stojan Mutikaša. In the following years both the critics' and audiences' awards were kept in parallel with the festival jury-given Golden Arenas, so the 1954 awards are usually not considered precursors of the present-day Big Golden Arena.
In 1955 a festival jury was introduced for the first time and it was also the first time that the award was officially called Big Golden Arena. Although it was given to the best film's director, it is de facto the first Big Golden Arena for Best Film, and it was won by František Čap for the film Trenutki odločitve.
In 1956 the Best Film award was not given in any form.
From 1957 to 1960 the festival jury ranked three best films of the festival, without giving them an official award.
From 1961 to 1968 the Big Golden Arena was awarded to best film, along with the second place prize called Big Silver Arena and a third place prize called Silver Arena.
From 1969 to 1980 the third place prize was renamed Big Bronze Arena.

Year	Award	English title(s)	Original title(s)	Director(s)
1955	1 !	Moments of Decision	Trenutki odločitve	František Čap
1956	Big Golden Arena was not awarded.
1957	1 !	Priests Ćira and Spira	Pop Ćira i pop Spira	Soja Jovanović
	2 !	Master of His Own Body	Svoga tela gospodar	Fedor Hanžeković
	3 !	Saturday Night	Subotom uveče	Vladimir Pogačić
1958	1 !	H-8	H-8	Nikola Tanhofer
	2 !	The Road a Year Long	Cesta duga godinu dana	Giuseppe De Santis
	3 !	The Sky Through the Trees	Kroz granje nebo	Stole Janković
1959	1 !	Train Without a Timetable	Vlak bez voznog reda	Veljko Bulajić
	2 !	Three Quarters of a Sun	Tri četrtine sonca	Jože Babič
	3 !	Five Minutes of Paradise	Pet minuta raja	Igor Pretnar
1960	1 !	The Ninth Circle	Deveti krug	France Štiglic
	2 !	Atomic War Bride	Rat	Veljko Bulajić
	3 !	Three Girls Named Anna	Tri Ane	Branko Bauer
1961	1 !	Ballad About a Trumpet and a Cloud *	Balada o trobenti i oblaku	France Štiglic
	1 !	The First Fires *	Uzavreli grad	Veljko Bulajić
	2 !	The Party	Veselica	Jože Babič
	3 !		Pesma	Radoš Novaković
1962	1 !	Kozara	Kozara	Veljko Bulajić
	2 !		Saša	Radenko Ostojić
	3 !		Prekobrojna	Branko Bauer
1963	1 !	Face to Face	Licem u lice	Branko Bauer
	2 !		Radopolje	Stole Janković
	3 !	Wild Growth	Samorastniki	Igor Pretnar
1964	1 !	Official Position	Službeni položaj	Fadil Hadžić
	2 !		Marš na Drinu	Žika Mitrović
	3 !	Don't Cry, Peter	Ne joči, Peter	France Štiglic
1965	1 !	Prometheus of the Island *	Prometej s otoka Viševice	Vatroslav Mimica
	1 !	Three *	Tri	Aleksandar Petrović
	2 !	Second place prize was not awarded.
	3 !		Doći i ostati	Branko Bauer
1966	1 !	Monday or Tuesday	Ponedjeljak ili utorak	Vatroslav Mimica
	2 !	The Climber *	Štićenik	Vladan Slijepčević
	2 !	Rondo *	Rondo	Zvonimir Berković
	3 !	The Dream	San	Puriša Đorđević
1967	1 !	I Even Met Happy Gypsies	Skupljači perja	Aleksandar Petrović
	2 !	The Morning	Jutro	Puriša Đorđević
	3 !	The Birch Tree *	Breza	Ante Babaja
	3 !	On Paper Planes *	Na avionima od papira	Matjaž Klopčič
1968	1 !	When I Am Pale and Dead	Kad budem mrtav i beo	Živojin Pavlović
	2 !	Noon	Podne	Puriša Đorđević
	3 !	I Have Two Mothers and Two Fathers	Imam dvije mame i dva tate	Krešimir Golik
1969	1 !	Downstream from the Sun	Nizvodno od sunca	Fedor Škubonja
	2 !	An Event	Događaj	Vatroslav Mimica
	3 !	It Rains in My Village	Biće skoro propast sveta	Aleksandar Petrović
1970	1 !	Handcuffs	Lisice	Krsto Papić
	2 !	The Cyclists	Biciklisti	Puriša Đorđević
	3 !	This Crazy World of Ours	Bube u glavi	Miloš Radivojević
1971	1 !	Red Wheat	Rdeče klasje / Crveno klasje	Živojin Pavlović
	2 !	The Pine Tree in the Mountain	U gori raste zelen bor	Antun Vrdoljak
	3 !	The Bet	Opklada	Zdravko Randić
1972	1 !	The Master and Margaret	Maestro i Margarita	Aleksandar Petrović
	2 !	Lone Wolf	Vuk samotnjak	Obrad Gluščević
	3 !	How to Die	Kako umrijeti	Miomir Stamenković
1973	1 !	The Battle of Sutjeska	Sutjeska	Stipe Delić
	2 !	The Bombardiers	Bombaši	Predrag Golubović
	3 !	To Live on Love	Živjeti od ljubavi	Krešimir Golik
1974	1 !	The Republic of Užice	Užička republika	Žika Mitrović
	2 !	The Dervish and Death	Derviš i smrt	Zdravko Velimirović
	3 !		Crveni udar	Predrag Golubović
1975	1 !	The House	Kuća	Bogdan Žižić
	2 !	Wintering in Jakobsfeld	Zimovanje u Jakobsfeldu	Branko Bauer
	3 !	Story of Good People	Povest o dobrih ljudeh	France Štiglic
1976	1 !	Idealist	Idealist	Igor Pretnar
	2 !	The Longest Journey	Najdolgiot pat	Branko Gapo
	3 !	Anno Domini 1573	Seljačka buna 1573	Vatroslav Mimica
1977	1 !	Don't Lean Out the Window	Ne naginji se van	Bogdan Žižić
	2 !	Operation Stadium	Akcija stadion	Dušan Vukotić
	3 !	Beloved Love	Ljubavni život Budimira Trajkovića	Dejan Karaklajić
1978	1 !	Occupation in 26 Pictures	Okupacija u 26 slika	Lordan Zafranović
	2 !	Bravo Maestro	Bravo maestro	Rajko Grlić
	3 !	The Dog Who Loved Trains	Pas koji je voleo vozove	Goran Paskaljević
1979	1 !	Trophy	Trofej	Karolj Viček
	2 !	Burning	Usijanje	Boro Drašković
	3 !	The Days on Earth Are Flowing	Zemaljski dani teku	Goran Paskaljević
1980	1 !	Petria's Wreath	Petrijin venac	Srđan Karanović
	2 !	The Secret of Nikola Tesla	Tajna Nikole Tesle	Krsto Papić
	3 !	Who's That Singing Over There	Ko to tamo peva	Slobodan Šijan

1981–1990

In 1981 the second and third place prizes were dropped.^[1] The following table lists all winners from 1981 to 1990. The Big Golden Arena was not awarded in 1982.^[2]

Year	English title(s)	Original title(s)	Director(s)
1981	The Fall of Italy	Pad Italije	Lordan Zafranović
1982	Big Golden Arena was not awarded.
1983	Body Scent	Zadah tela	Živojin Pavlović
1984	Balkan Spy	Balkanski špijun	Dušan Kovačević Božidar Nikolić
1985	When Father Was Away on Business	Otac na službenom putu	Emir Kusturica
1986	Happy New Year '49	Srećna nova '49.	Stole Popov
1987	Reflections	Već viđeno	Goran Marković
1988	My Uncle's Legacy	Život sa stricem	Krsto Papić
1989	The Meeting Point	Sabirni centar	Goran Marković
1990	Silent Gunpowder	Gluvi barut	Bato Čengić

1991–present

Following the breakup of Yugoslavia which began in the early 1990s and the ensuing Croatian War of Independence, the festival was cancelled in 1991.^[3] In 1992 it was re-launched as the Pula Film Festival (as opposed to the Festival of Yugoslav Film as it was known earlier).^[4] Award categories and names were unchanged, but the selection was narrowed to Croatian films only, excluding films from the other five republics of Yugoslavia. This meant that the number of films eligible for awards fell sharply, which even led to the cancellation of the 1994 award ceremony, as only one Croatian feature film had been produced in the preceding 12 months.^[5]

Year	English title	Original title	Director(s)
1991	Festival cancelled.^[A]
1992	Story from Croatia	Priča iz Hrvatske	Krsto Papić
1993	Countess Dora	Kontesa Dora	Zvonimir Berković
1994	National competition program cancelled.^[B]
1995	Washed Out	Isprani	Zrinko Ogresta
1996	How the War Started on My Island	Kako je počeo rat na mom otoku	Vinko Brešan
1997	Mondo Bobo	Mondo Bobo	Goran Rušinović
1998	When the Dead Start Singing	Kad mrtvi zapjevaju	Krsto Papić
1999	Madonna	Bogorodica	Neven Hitrec
2000	Marshal Tito's Spirit	Maršal	Vinko Brešan
2001	Slow Surrender	Polagana predaja	Bruno Gamulin
2002	Fine Dead Girls	Fine mrtve djevojke	Dalibor Matanić
2003	Here	Tu	Zrinko Ogresta
2004	Long Dark Night	Duga mračna noć	Antun Vrdoljak
2005	What Iva Recorded	Što je Iva snimila 21. listopada 2003.	Tomislav Radić
2006	All for Free	Sve džaba	Antonio Nuić
2007	The Living and the Dead	Živi i mrtvi	Kristijan Milić
2008	No One's Son	Ničiji sin	Arsen Anton Ostojić
2009	Metastases	Metastaze	Branko Schmidt
2010	Just Between Us	Neka ostane među nama	Rajko Grlić
2011	Kotlovina	Kotlovina	Tomislav Radić

Footnotes

A. ^ Although the festival was opened on 26 July 1991 and a press screening of Zrinko Ogresta's film Fragments: Chronicle of a Vanishing was held, the festival board presided by Antun Vrdoljak decided to cancel the festival in protest against the violence of the Ten-Day War which was going on in Slovenia and the initial stages of the Croatian War of Independence. Nine films were supposed to be screened in the competition program.^[3]

B. ^ : The awards ceremony was cancelled in 1994 as only one Croatian feature film was made in the preceding 12 months (Bogdan Žižić's The Price of Life). The festival was held in spite of this, but the usual national competition program was replaced with a retrospective of animated films produced by the Zagreb School of Animated Film and a selection of documentaries, while the main program featured premieres of six American wide release movies.^[5]

References

General

"Internet stranice proteklih festivala i arhivski podaci" (in Croatian). Pula Film Festival. http://www.pulafilmfestival.hr/hr/index.php?p=list&group=47. Retrieved 18 May 2010.

Specific

^ "28. Pulski filmski festival" (in Croatian). Pula Film Festival. http://www.pulafilmfestival.hr/hr/index.php?p=detail&article=245. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
^ "29. Pulski filmski festival" (in Croatian). Pula Film Festival. http://www.pulafilmfestival.hr/hr/index.php?p=detail&article=246. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
^ ^a ^b "38. Pulski filmski festival" (in Croatian). Pula Film Festival. http://www.pulafilmfestival.hr/hr/index.php?p=detail&article=255. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
^ "Pula Film Festival: Overview". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000554/overview. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
^ ^a ^b "41. Pulski filmski festival" (in Croatian). Pula Film Festival. http://www.pulafilmfestival.hr/hr/index.php?p=detail&article=258. Retrieved 21 May 2010.

External links

Pula Film Festival of Yugoslavian Films (1954–1990) at the Internet Movie Database
Pula Film Festival (1992–present) at the Internet Movie Database
Web archive 1954–2010 at the Pula Film Festival official website (Croatian)

Golden Arena awards

Pula Film Festival All winners

Current awards	Best Film Best Director Best Leading Actor Best Leading Actress Best Screenplay Best Supporting Actor Best Supporting Actress Best Production Design Best Cinematography Best Costume Design Best Film Editing Best Makeup Best Film Music Best Sound Editing

Cinema of Yugoslavia Cinema of Croatia