Urška Djukić

Urška Djukić’s most recent short film Granny’s Sexual Life has won over 50 awards, including the European Film Academy Award for Best Short Film in 2022 and the 2023 Cesar Award for Best Animated Short Film. Previous short films by Djukić also include The Right One, part of the omnibus film SEE Factory Sarajevo mon amour that premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2019. In 2019, Djukić participated in the 39thedition of the Cannes Cinéfondation Residency, where she developed Little Trouble Girls, later awarded as the best work-in-progress project at the Les Arcs Film Festival in December 2023. Little Trouble Girls is her debut film that will premiere in 2025, opening the competitive section Perspectives of the Berlinale 2025. This is an honest film portraying a young girl on the threshold of her own sexual identity. The film invites reflection on personal dignity, desire, and the act of taking a stand in relation to one’s faith. The music adds depth to the intimate narrative and to the girl’s inner process. "Secrets, intimate desires, deception, confessions: this Perspectives film explores a kaleidoscope of emergent awakenings as driven by an evocative sensory experience and epitomised by its exceptional opening scene. The filmmaker beautifully portrays the struggles of a teenage girl stepping into adolescence—the push and pull of sexuality and societal restrictions—through excellent cinematic expression. For this portrait of the eponymous “little girls in trouble” crafted in an imaginative and oneiric way, the FIPRESCI Jury Award for the inaugural Perspectives section goes to Little Trouble Girls by Urška Djukić." The filmmaker continuously surprises the audience through their confident approach to the story of a teenage girl forced to confront her own vulnerabilities. The film’s embedded musicality and visual language create a provocative sense of tension that speaks to different forms of violence bubbling beneath the surface. Via a bright leading performance by Jara Sofija Ostan and an innate sense of curiosity, we, the audience, discover the many faces of growing up.