This year’s Star Film Fest brings nine stellar awards: the Award for Best Industrial Film, the Award for Best Fiction Film, the Award for Best Documentary Film, the Award for Best Experimental Film, the Award for Best Animated Film, the Golden Star Award – for Best Student Film, the Special Star Award – for Best Film Selected by the Festival Selectors, and the Stardust Award – for Best Film as Voted by the Audience and year also brings a special award: the Supernova Star for the best film that innovatively portrays the concept of movement (in line with the festival’s theme). The Special Star Award for Best Student Film also includes a monetary prize awarded by the “junior jury” called the Stardusters, made up of high school students from the cities of Sisak and Petrinja.
The remaining five awards will be presented by this year’s professional jury, which consists of film critic Bartol Babić Vukmir, actress Petra Kurtela, illustrator and animator Ana Despot – last year’s winner of the Best Animated Film award at Star Film Fest – and director Lucija Brkić, winner of the “Small Stamp” award for Best Short Film at ZagrebDox 2024.
Bartol Babić Vukmir (Zagreb, 1999) holds a degree in Comparative Literature and English Studies from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. He publishes film criticism in the Croatian Film Chronicle and on the Zona filma portal. He is a member of the executive board of Kinoklub Zagreb, where he serves as an archivist and helps organize the club’s discussion-based programs Basement Screenings and Film Reader. Since 2020, he has collaborated with Film Mutations: The Festival of Invisible Film and is also the author of several short experimental films.
Petra Kurtela was born in 1982 in Zagreb. In 2009, she graduated in Acting and Puppetry from the Academy of Arts in Osijek. In 2010, she was nominated for the Croatian Actor Award for outstanding achievement by a young artist for her role as Janica in the play The Birch Tree at the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin. In 2012, along with her colleagues, she received the Croatian Actor Award for outstanding theatrical achievement in acting, directing, dramaturgy, set design, and costume design for the play The Actresses and Such. She has performed in over thirty theatre productions, collaborating with renowned directors such as Krešimir Dolenčić, Zijah Sokolović, Mario Kovač, Ivan Leo Lemo, Zlatko Sviben, Damir Zlatar Frey, Ozren Prohić, Želimir Mesarić, Slavica Knežević, Nina Kleflin, Boris Kovačević, Igor Barberić, and others. Her notable film work includes collaborations with acclaimed directors such as Cristi Puiu (Sieranevada), Andrei Tănase (Day of the Tiger), Matija Kluković (Slow Days), Ivona Juka (You Carry Me), and Hana Domazet (Delivery).
Ana Despot was born in Zagreb, where she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts with a specialization in Animated Film. She also earned a master’s degree in English and French Language and Literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. She has translated several novels and film scripts, professionally designed visual identities for various art projects, and illustrated numerous children’s magazines, textbooks, books, and picture books. She has participated in several group exhibitions and led various art workshops for children. She has illustrated six picture books, created two animated films, and produced an animated music video for Croatian National Television (HRT). In 2021, she made her first animated film The Egg, which had its world premiere at the Pula Film Festival. In 2024, she completed her graduate film Stribor’s Forest, based on the story by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, which also inspired the corresponding picture book. The film premiered at Animafest Zagreb, opened the Vukovar Film Festival, won Best Animated Film at Star Film Fest in Sisak, and received a special mention at Tabor Film Festival. For her visual design of singer Gina Damjanović’s album In My Secret Notes, she earned a Porin Award nomination in 2024. In 2025, she designed and painted portraits of the winners of the Cesarica Music Award for Monthly and Annual Hits, exhibiting her work at the award’s celebration in Lauba. She is currently working on her next animated film in collaboration with Zagreb Film and serves as both coordinator and selector for animated film at the Vukovar Film Festival. She works in directing, animation, illustration—in a word, creation. She is also passionate about music, plays the piano, and sings. She loves to create strange worlds, fascinating characters, and incredible creatures, awakening childlike nostalgia in herself and others.
Lucija Brkić was born in Pula in 2000. She completed her undergraduate studies in Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka. She is currently finishing her graduate studies in Film and TV Directing, specializing in Documentary Film at the Academy of Dramatic Art. She is the author of the films One Friday Afternoon (2021, Filmaktiv), You Get It Now? (2022, Blank), and In Transit (2024, ADU), which won the Small Stamp award for Best Short Film at ZagrebDox 2024.
