The award winners have been announced at the 58th BITEF.
On 4th October, the closing night of the the 58th edition of BITEF, the Belgrade International Theatre Festival, the Mira Trailović Grand Prix was awarded to the Croatian author and dramaturg Jasna Žmak for her piece this is my truth, tell me yours.
The 58th Bitef was held under the slogan ‘Beauty Will (Not) Save the World’ and included work by Milo Rau, who delivered the festival’s opening address, Carolina Bianchi and Tiago Rodrigues and the Comédie-Française.
This year’s international jury, consisted of Marine Mane, French director and author, actresses Jelena Stupljanin and Tihana Lazović, dramaturg and writer Dimitrije Kokanov, and Natasha Tripney, journalist and critic. They awarded Mira Trailović Grand Prix to the Croatian author and dramaturg, who also goes by Jasna Jasna Žmak, for her solo performance this is my truth, tell me yours. In the jury statement they cited its generosity and frankness as a performance and stated: “This is an authentic, precisely articulated, multi-layered lecture performance in which the author discusses the traditional patriarchal and capitalist constraints in performing arts practices.”
The Jovan Ćirilov Special Award was shared by two pieces: Sex Education II: Fight directed by Tjaša Črnigoj, one part of a wider lecture performance piece about women’s sexual pleasure and reproductive rights co-produced by the New Post Office (Mladinsko Theatre, Maska Ljubljana) and City of Women, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Cadela Força Trilogy – Chapter I: The Bride and the Goodnight Cinderella by Brazilian artist Carolina Bianchi, a powerful piece about femicide in which Bianchi ingests a ‘date rape’ drug on stage.
Of Sex Education II: Fight, the jury said: “Sex Education II: Fight, directed by Tjaša Črnigoj, draws on our shared past to explore the process by which abortion entered the constitution of Yugoslavia and to connect this with the times in which we live when women in many countries are seeing their rights rolled back.”
Of The Bride and the Goodnight Cinderella, they said: “We were impressed with the compelling nature of Bianchi’s performance, the intricacy of the text and the way in which the piece rejects catharsis.”
The Politika Award for best directing which is awarded by a separate jury from the Serbian daily newspaper went to Milo Rau for his piece Antigone in the Amazon.
The Audience Award, voted for by the public, was presented to Sex Education II: Fight, which was rated 4,80 by 179 votes. Antigone in the Amazon was in the second place (4,76) and Tiago Rodrigues’ production for the Comédie-Française, Hecuba, not Hecuba (4,74) in the third place.
Main image: Tanja Drobnjak
For more information on this year’s BITEF festival, visit: bitef.festival.rs
Further reading: Interview with curatorial team of BITEF
Further reading: Interview with Tjaša Črnigoj: “Women’s sexual pleasure is still taboo.”
Further reading: review of this is my truth, tell me yours
Divna Stojanov is a dramaturg and playwright. She writes mainly for children and young people.
