{"id":486116,"date":"2026-05-15T14:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486116\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:12:14","slug":"to-hold-a-mountain-wins-top-prize-at-millennium-docs-against-gravity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486116\/","title":{"rendered":"‘To Hold a Mountain’ Wins Top Prize at Millennium Docs Against Gravity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cTo Hold a Mountain,\u201d a documentary from directing duo\u00a0Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazi\u0107 about sisterhood and solitude in the Montenegrin highlands, won the Grand Prix at Millennium Docs Against Gravity<\/a> during an award ceremony in Warsaw on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, which won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize\u00a0at Sundance earlier this year, was praised by the jury as \u201ca nuanced portrayal of sisterhood, adolescence and the profound, generative role that nature and family hold in shaping who we are.\u201d Variety\u2018s Murtada Elfadl described it as<\/a> \u201can emotionally shattering meditation on grief and perseverance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film takes us into a magical world \u2014 a chosen solitude shared between an aunt and her niece, redrawing for us the beauty of family bonds within an enchanting natural landscape and rural tradition filled with love and patience,\u201d said the jury. \u201cThe same patience is shown by the filmmakers themselves, as they quietly observed and captured every subtle detail of a story that speaks to the reunion of humanity with nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTwelve films competed for the Grand Prix \u2013 Bank Millennium Award at the 23rd Millennium Docs Against Gravity, which wraps in Warsaw and six other Polish cities May 17.\u00a0The jury was comprised of Oscar-nominated Syrian filmmaker\u00a0Talal Derki (\u201cOf Fathers and Sons\u201d), Danish cinematographer and director Lea Glob (\u201cOlmo and the Seagull\u201d) and Osar-nominated producer Jessica Hargrave (\u201cCome See Me in the Good Light\u201d). The festival will continue online\u00a0from May 19 \u2013 June 1.<\/p>\n

\n\tA special mention in the main competition was awarded to \u201cA Fox Under a Pink Moon<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0the IDFA-winning documentary from directors\u00a0Mehrdad Oskouei and Soraya Akhlaghi, which\u00a0scooped two other prizes Thursday night, including the Amnesty International Poland Award and the FIPRESCI Award, presented by the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) at Millennium Docs for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOther awards from the main competition included the prize for best cinematography, which went to \u201cClosure,\u201d from Polish filmmaker and cinematographer Micha\u0142 Marczak. The award for best editing went to\u00a0\u201cTime and Water,\u201d from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sara Dosa (\u201cFire of Love\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival\u2019s award for best Polish film went to\u00a0\u201cCandidates of Death,\u201d director Maciej Cuske\u2019s decade-long portrait of a father, his son and two young friends making an amateur horror film. A special mention went to directors\u00a0Alisa Kovalenko<\/a> and Marysia Nikitiuk\u2019s \u201cTraces,\u201d a powerful portrayal of Ukrainian women who refuse to remain silent after surviving sexual assault during the war with Russia. The film also won the Smakjam Award for Best Production in the Polish competition.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Millennium Docs simultaneously unspooling across seven Polish cities, several awards were also handed out at the festival\u2019s satellite venues.\u00a0\u201cMariinka<\/a>,\u201d Belgian filmmaker Pieter-Jan de Pue\u2019s CPH:DOX-opening documentary about young lives shattered by the war in Ukraine, won the Mayor of Gdynia Award and the City of Pozna\u0144 Freedom Award. The ART.DOC Award, presented in the city of Bydgoszcz, went to Greek director Lucas Paleocrassas\u2019 \u201cBugboy,\u201d a sensitive portrayal of youth.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cFiume o Morte!\u201d won the first-ever FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of IFFR<\/p>\n

\n\tCommenting on this year\u2019s edition, festival director Artur Liebhart said it \u201chas again been a joy of celebrating documentary film\u2019s genre in all varieties of its forms.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have significantly\u00a0enlarged activities for the industry\u00a0this year, giving new opportunities to develop\u00a0film projects at and with our festival. Over 200 filmmakers\u00a0and other industry professionals have seen sold-out screenings rooms,\u201d said Leibhart. \u201cWe have lifted up the status of a documentary film in social-cultural perception to the level unprecedented\u00a0in most other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in the week, at the festival\u2019s opening ceremony, FIPRESCI launched\u00a0the Documentary Grand Prix for best documentary film of the year, which was selected through a vote by the critics group\u2019s members.\u00a0That award went to \u201cFiume o Morte!<\/a>,\u201d from Croatian filmmaker Igor\u00a0Bezinovi\u0107, whose Rotterdam-winning docufiction wittily combines archival footage and historical reenactments to revisit the 1919 occupation of the politically disputed city of Fiume by Italian fascists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a Q&A after a special screening of the film in Warsaw, Bezinovi\u0107\u00a0\u2014 a native of the modern-day Fiume, now called Rijeka \u2014 described \u201cFiume o Morte!\u201d as a cinematic \u201creappropriation of history.\u201d Employing a cast of non-professional locals, the film playfully interrogates the brutal but bungled occupation while also allowing its actors \u2014 many of whom are descendants of the fascists\u2019 victims \u2014 to reinterpret and reclaim a chapter in their city\u2019s past. It was a way for them, said Bezinovi\u0107, to take \u201crevenge through storytelling and art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe power and possibility of documentary filmmaking was a theme throughout the week. At the opening ceremony, festival artistic director\u00a0Karol Piekarczyk\u00a0took a none-too-subtle jab at German filmmaker Wim Wenders and the manifold controversies that swirled around this year\u2019s Berlin Film Festival, where jury president Wenders insisted that filmmakers should \u201cstay out of politics<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m not going to take issue with the person that said it, but with the sentiment,\u201d said\u00a0Piekarczyk.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t know since when basic human rights have become political. We didn\u2019t make them political.\u00a0I think there is a deep misunderstanding about how filmmakers work, especially documentary filmmakers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cTraces\u201d won the Panorama Audience Award in Berlin.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Millennium Docs Against Gravity<\/p>\n

\n\tPiekarczyk\u00a0referenced the Ukrainian filmmaker Kovalenko, whose \u201cTraces\u201d \u2014 which won the Panorama Audience Award at this year\u2019s Berlinale \u2014 is based on the director\u2019s experiences as a survivor of sexual violence and follows six Ukrainian women attempting to transform their trauma into collective agency and hope.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAlisa didn\u2019t make her film because she had this list and she just figured how she\u2019s going to make a film,\u201d\u00a0Piekarczyksaid. \u201cShe made it because it\u2019s a personal story, but it\u2019s a story that people have to hear. It\u2019s a story about how sexual violence is treated like a weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was Kovalenko who offered one of the week\u2019s more stirring moments during a panel discussion about documentary film as an act of resilience. The director recounted her own experience as a captive of Russian forces, who have systematically used sexual violence and other forms of torture against Ukrainian women.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt took two years for Kovalenko to speak publicly about her captivity and torture.\u00a0Ultimately, however, she came to believe that she \u201chad no choice\u201d but to use her platform as a documentary filmmaker to share the stories of other survivors. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom the first meeting of our community, we talked a lot about documentary film as a tool of advocacy, to fight for justice, to amplify the voices of survivors, to document war crimes,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCulture has become a battlefield. Cinema has become our weapon against the aggressor,\u201d she continued. \u201cAfter the [full-scale Russian] invasion, I can\u2019t think about cinema as art. It\u2019s about your responsibility as an artist. We\u2019re all becoming a resistance, to make the world better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTo Hold a Mountain,\u201d a documentary from directing duo\u00a0Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazi\u0107 about sisterhood and solitude in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[212310,9985,18,117,19,212311,17,191396,327],"class_list":["post-486116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-alisa-kovalenko","tag-documentaries-to-watch","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-igor-bezinoviu0107","tag-ireland","tag-millennium-docs-against-gravity","tag-movies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116579005118484423","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}