58th International Theatre Festival MESS Concluded

SARAJevo, (Patria) - The jury, consisting of Polish dramaturge, theatre critic, and artistic curator Tomasz Kirenczuk, Slovak dramaturge, translator, and screenwriter Peter Kovač, and director Lajla Kaikčija, has announced the laureates of the 58th International Theatre Festival MESS.

The Grand Prix – “Golden Laurel Wreath for Best Performance Overall” was awarded to “Sylphidarium-Maria Taglioni on the Field,” by Collettivo Cinetico, Italy. The Golden Laurel Wreath for Best Director was awarded to Alessandro Serra for the performance “Macbettu.” The Golden Laurel Wreath for Best Acting Performance was awarded to Enkidu Khaled for the role in the performance “Baghdad,” reports Oslobođenje.

The “Rejhan Demirdžić” Award for Best Young Actor/Actress was given to Adrijan Pezdirc for his performance in “What is Missing.”

Special jury awards were given to the creative team, actors, and actresses of the performance “Welcome,” directed by Nermin Hamzagić, and the acting ensemble of the performance “Cezary Goes to War,” by Polish director Cezary Tomaszewski.

The MESS Festival Directorate awarded two prizes. The “Marko Kovačević” Award for theatre criticism, publicism, and theatre studies was awarded to Asja Krsmanović for her critical reviews from the MESS Festival 2018.

Children decided the award for the best performance in the small MESS program through their votes, and this year's winner is the performance “Svirala” with an average rating of 10.00. The audience award for the best performance of the 58th MESS Festival was won by the performance “Welcome” with an average rating of 9.62.

In addition to the awards from the jury and the MESS festival directorate, the winners of the awards presented by the media patrons of the MESS festival were also announced at the award ceremony:

Oslobođenje – Golden Mask – “Macbettu,” Alessandro Serra, Compagnia Teatropersona.

Magazine “Dani” – Brave New World – “Butterfly-Birth Exercise,” Andraš Urban, Royal Theatre Zetski dom.

Radio Sarajevo – Sound of MESS - “Butterfly-Birth Exercise,” Andraš Urban, Royal Theatre Zetski dom. For the first time, the Radio Sarajevo jury also had a special mention, which was the performance “Welcome,” by Nermin Hamzagić.

The “Luka Pavlović” Award, given by a team of theatre critics including Bojana Vidosavljević, Asja Krsmanović, Dario Bevanda, Edin Salčinović, Stela Mišković, and Dino Pešut, was awarded to the performance “Macbettu,” directed by Alessandro Serra.

Over the past eight festival days, audiences had the opportunity to see 23 performances from 17 countries and 4 continents in the main program, with the participation of 500 artists.