About

The founder of Kinoatelje, also a sociologist and a film critic, Darko Bratina (1942-1997) had attributed an important role to the film, television and video media: he stated that it was one of the best means of understanding society, history and culture. Following his vision, the award that this year will be granted for the 12th time consecutively, carries his name and also selects works and authors, which besides the aesthetical values, have an additional focus towards the historical and social surroundings, hence advocating intercultural communication.

Today the award ceremony occurs as a cross-border film festival, Tribute to a Vision, taking place in the inter-regional space between Slovenia and Italy by connecting audiences and film institutions in 7 different cities (Gorizia, Nova Gorica, Trieste, Izola, San Pietro al Natisone, Udine in Ljubljana), for which the physical distance might not be great, but the cultural varieties are rather expressive and stand for the richness of our cross-border space. The festival presents the complete filmography of the selected author, the winner of the Darko Bratina award. Roundtables with the awarded guest, film projections and a professional workshop - a masterclass co-organized with our neighboring partners. The complete program is bilingual (in Italian and Slovene), except for the masterclass which is in English. 

In the year 2015 we enriched the festival with the accompanying program Award trough time, in which we present the newest works of the awarded author from the previous years, in other words we reposition his timeless masterpieces. Bringing a new freshness to the festival is the young program First Crossings, which inclines to work as a platform for exploring new film languages.