Bulgarian drama Godless takes home Locarno top prize

Bulgarian director Ralitza Petrova’s debut feature Godless has taken home the top prize, the Golden Leopard, at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.

At the awards ceremony on Saturday night, the Bulgarian-Danish-French co-production also received the Ecumenical Jury Prize, which comes with a cash award of $20,500.

In addition, Irena Ivanova’s performance as a nurse looking after elderly patients with dementia won the drama film the award for Best Actress.

Godless was not the only New East film to be successful at Locarno — the jury gave its Special Jury prize to Romanian drama Scarred Hearts by Radu Jude, while the Leopard for Best Actor was awarded to Andrzej Seweryn of Poland for his role in Jan P. Matuszyński’s feature debut The Last Family.

Source: Screen Daily