Olga Odanović and Branko Vidaković best actors, Vanja Ejdus and Aleksandar Vučković awards for best episodic roles

The actors who performed the play of the Belgrade National Theater, "Fathers and Fathers" and the Tivat Culture Center, "The Bald Singer", shared awards at the 19th International Festival of Actors in Nikšić.

This was the unanimous decision of the jury composed of Ljiljana Blagojević, president, and Zoran Đerić and Velizar Kasalica, members.

Judging by the applause and ovations during the performance of the plays, which were directed by Veljko Mićunović and Jagoš Marković, but also during the announcement of the best, the audience also decided that.

The Grand Prix for the best female and male role went to Olga Odanović and Branko Vidaković, who masterfully played the married couple Borio in "The Bald Singer".

"Mr. Borio, who was played by Branko Vidaković, completely in the spirit of Ionesco's antidrama, carries in himself the austerity of the original character, conformity and compliance with the rules in the communication of language phrases, the so-called eternal truths, but also spontaneity, the filigree skill to insert a few remarks, a single acting move that will lead the action of this absurd comedy to the desired catharsis. Olga Odanović, who played Mrs. Borio, created a role that will be remembered and mentioned for a long time: not letting Ionesko and his comedy of the absurd, she seasoned her character with the peculiarities of Boka, and thus built a unique acting figure of an alienated woman, of a missed life, who yearns for beauty and attention, strives for a new life and meaning, but does not find it, and that is why she is 'drowning more and more in absurdity and emptiness', 'struggling and sinking more and more', as this exceptional drama artist herself noticed," the explanation of the award states.

The Grand Prix for the best episodic roles went to the protagonists of the play "Fathers and Fathers" - Vanja Ejdus for the role of Elizabeta Medaković and her son in the play Aleksandar Vučković, who portrayed the character of Mihajlo.

The two have already won awards at numerous festivals in the region for their outstanding interpretation of the mentioned characters.

"Vanja Ejdus built her role of Elizabeta Medaković gradually and consistently according to the indications of the experienced writer, Slobodan Selenić, but also the post-dramatic director's intentions of the young Veljko Mićunović: from English strictness, through irony and restraint when entering a new, unknown, Belgrade, Serbian family and environment, to complete dedication and commitment to those closest to him. One of the most complex characters in this play. Created in great style. Aleksandar Vučković created the role of Mihajlo Medaković in developmental stages, from a child, a boy to an adult young man, and, accordingly, from a quiet and from a gentle being to an offensive and threatening revolutionary, sometimes mildly and subtly, to culminate in a strong and sharp rebellion of generational growth and political maturity, and then opposition to the family", the jury's explanation states.

The actors from the play "Fathers and fathers" were also awarded for the best partnership on stage – Sena Đorović, who played Nanka, and Miloš Đorđević, the "head" of the Medaković family.

"Miloš Đorđević, as Milutin Medaković, and Sena Đorović, as Nanka, shaped different acting sensibilities, the first calming, and the second at times quarrelsome, subtly, minimalistic, according to the director's instructions, but with a lot of noticeable details and thus introduced a discreet dynamics in the play Fathers and Fathers, but also reconciled all generational and political conflicts. Civic consistency, on the one hand, and folk tradition, on the other, are a characteristic example of the permeation of the city and the countryside, different sensibilities, which created, not only Selenić's heroes, but also the ancestors of many of us", according to the jury of the 19th International Actor's Festival.

The president of the jury, Ljiljana Blagojević, read the explanations.

The program was led by Nikšić Theater actor Matija Memedović.

In honor of the award-winning actors, the performance of the Kruševac Theater "For now everything is OK", directed by Snežana Trišić, based on Nataša Rajković's text "Window", will be performed. The play features: Biljana Nikolić, Dejan Tončić, Bojan Veljović and Nikola Rakić.

"Illness is often the result of unresolved traumas and problems, for some it is a way out, and for others it is a weapon and a means of manipulation. At the center of the story is Milena, the head nurse from the orthopedics department and her husband, then the boss at work and a patient she meets in the hospital. Now , are those characters or are they us or are they the actors on the stage? Whose dreams are they dreaming and are these dreams their refuges or our secret worlds? It would be difficult to clarify and set exact boundaries and diagnoses, because when it's about love, there is no real diagnosis, vaccine or cure," Trišić wrote.

This year's edition of the Festival, which offered the audience exceptional plays from the region and in which outstanding acting was seen, justified the expectations of the audience that filled the theater hall every night until the last minute. The selector, Jelena Stajkovac, is responsible for the selection of plays, as well as for the motto of the Festival, "So it is (if it seems so to you)", and for the successful 19th edition of the festival in honor of the actor, the merits belong to the employees of the Nikšić Theater, led by director and artistic director, Radinko Krulanović and Janko Jelić.