Ivan Ikić’s film Oasis was named the best Serbian film by the Serbian section of the International Federation of Critics (FIPRESCI). This award was given for the first time on July 19th, at the Palić European Film Festival, by the newly established Association of Serbian Film Festivals – AFIFS, which consists of seven film festivals in Serbia: European Film Festival Palić, Film Screenplay Festival (Vrnjačka Banja), Acting Festival – Film Meetings (Niš), Leskovac International Film Directing Festival – LIFFE, Author’s Film Festival (Belgrade), Šumadija International Film Festival of Debut Film (Kragujevac) and Picture in Motion Festival (Novi Sad).

Milan Nikodijević, a member of the FIPRESCI Serbia jury that decided on the best film, presented the award to the film’s producer Milan Stojanović (Sense Production) and director Ivan Ikic. The monetary value of the award is 300,000 dinars. During the award ceremony, Milan Stojanović, producer of the film “Oasis”, said: “Thank you to the Association of Film Festivals for this wonderful award, thank you to FIPRESCI for just choosing our film, but also to the Palić European Film Festival for its wonderful hospitality. Ivan’s and my first film Barbarians had its premiere here in 2014 and then also won the award. This year the film is not at the festival, but it still won the award. It’s a big pleasure.”

Milan Stojanović, producer

The explanation of the jury’s (Milan Nikodijević, Ivan Karl and Borislav Andjelć) states that director Ivan Ikić “skillfully articulates the acting of his amateur crew in an authorially exciting and aesthetically convincing way”, and that this is a kind of authorial experiment in which Ikić “escapes to freedom”. “Leading his young heroes (…) through delicate paths of self-destruction around which the director weaves the poetics of cruelty and painful reality of with bold solutions and authorial subtlety. The jury further states that this film “according to its authorial approach and high aesthetic and moral values ​​that it has achieved, this project is the best Serbian film this year, and this achievement puts it in a high place among the achievements in the last decade of Serbian film ”.

Ivan Ikić, director

The film had its premiere last year at the prestigious Venice Film Festival, where it won the award for Best European Film in the Days of Authors section, awarded by the Europa Cinemas network. It premiered in Serbia at FEST, where it won the award for best film in the Main Competition Program.

The story follows three people in an institution for young people with special needs. Marija soon befriends the equally fearless girlfriend Dragana, and when it becomes clear that they are both in love with the withdrawn young man Robert, their relationship is jeopardized and gradually grows into a dangerous game of blindfolds with the goal of winning him over. The main roles are played by Mariana Novakov, Tijana Marković, Valentino Zenuni, Milica Djindjić, Saša Strugar, Marusa Majer, and Goran Bogdan.