At the just concluded 17th Southeast European Film Festival (SEEfest) in Los Angeles, the film As Fat As I Can Walk directed by Stefan Arsenijević won several awards. The main festival jury awarded the film with a Special Recognition Award, while the Film Without Borders Association awarded the MOSAIC Bridging The Borders Award, and the film also won the Audience Award. Arsenijević’s film also received the newly established BARCO Tech Prize, which is awarded by the technology giant Barco, which specializes in digital film image and laser technologies.
“I am sorry that I could not attend the Festival due to prior obligations. There were voices about the excellent reception of our film, journalists were calling for interviews, but this number of awards surprised me and pleasantly surprised me. To me, of course, the audience award means the most. I am happy that our film manages to provoke emotions in all parts of the world, even in the center of the American film industry, “said director Stefan Arsenijević on the occasion of these awards.
Due to the great interest, As Far As I Can Walk had an additional screening on the last night of the festival.
This year, the festival presented 63 films in various competition programs, which is the largest number so far. The mission of the festival is to present the filmmaking and culture of Southeast Europe to the American audience and the Hollywood industry. Numerous screenings were followed by discussions, round tables and workshops.
Last week, the film won the Special Jury Award in Germany, at the 22nd GoEast Central and Eastern European Film Festival in Wiesbaden.
Stefan Arsenijević’s film has so far participated in over 20 other film festivals, including prestigious festivals in Pinja, Cairo, Seville, Montpellier, Thessaloniki, Haifa, Trieste and other cities around the world, and has won awards at a total of 16 festivals so far.
The film “waswritten by Stefan Arsenijević, Bojan Vuletić and Nicolas Ducray, was produced by the Serbian film company Art & Popcorn, and Miroslav Mogorović as the main producer. Co-producers are Surprise Alley (France), Les Films Fauves (Luxembourg), Artbox Production House (Lithuania) and Chouchkov brothers (Bulgaria) and associate co-producers Cinnamon Films. The film is internationally distributed by the Belgrade company Soul Food Films and Distribution, and the Serbian distributor is MCF MegaCom Films.
The film was supported by Film Center Serbia, the Council of Europe Fund – Eurimage, the Luxembourg Film Fund, the French National Film Center, the Bulgarian National Film Center, the Lithuanian Film Center, Creative Europe – MEDIA and the Government of Serbia.