After a marathon week, where over 120 films dedicated to travel, nature, environment and tourism were shown in three parallel cinemas in Tirana, the first edition of “Travel fest Albania” closed on Sunday evening, with a special ceremony, where 22 awards were delivered for directors from all over the world.

The winner of the festival’s grand prize, the German director Oliver Goetzl with his film “White Wolves – Ghosts of the Arctic”, received two more trophies at the festival such as the first prize in the category “NATURE & WILDLIFE” as well as the award as the best director of this festival.

In the “Adventure” category, the winner was the documentary “Uta – Climbing for Kosovo” directed by Jake Tupman and Jack Somerville, a documentary that deals with emotions, strength, passion and the example of an indomitable warrior of life.
The audience award was won by director Adriano Zeça’s film “Return to Lost Eden”, which deals with a journey in two periods to an island to observe the life of an indigenous community he calls the people of flowers.

In the Albanian film category, the film “Sparks of Light” directed by Burim Haliti was declared the winner, a film with important messages about the strength, energy and creativity of an extraordinary boy, who, despite having special skills, he manages to move ahead in his career and take the reins of his life.

An important award given to a special documentary was “Best script”, which was awarded to the script of the Belgian documentary “Tandem Local” directed by François Legrand.

Filmmaker François Legrand, present at the award ceremony, said that “this award goes in gratitude to all the honest farmers in the world, who, like the protagonists of his documentary, fight every day to protect the land and life”.

The jury of “Travel Fest Albania” gave a total of 22 awards in the final night of this first edition.

/Klara Ruci/