Al Jazeera Balkans documentary fest ends with award ceremony

BELGRADE, Serbia

The 5th Al Jazeera Balkans International Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC) has ended with an award ceremony.

At the festival, where touching human stories are told this year, the "AJB Main Award" was given to Gorki Glaser Muller's documentary "Children of the Enemy", which tells the story of a man trying to save his 7 grandchildren from the DAESH camp in Syria.

Julie Bezerra Madsen's documentary "All that Remains to be Seen" won the "AJB Special Jury Award", while Petar Triesta's "A Parked Life" and Marc Wiese's "This Stolen Country of Mine" documentaries were also awarded.

"It is not easy to attract the audience to real events rather than fiction. We were surprised that the tickets were sold out and people showed interest in these issues,'' Festival Director Edhem Foco said.

Documentaries such as "A House Made Of Splinters" by Simon Lereng Wilmont, "No Place Like Home" by Emilie Beck and "Celebrity Untold: Miroslav Ciro Blazevic" by Irena Skoric were also screened as part of the closing program.

Anadolu Agency has been the global communication partner of the festival.

The festival was held in Sarajevo on Sept. 9-13, viewers had the opportunity to watch the documentary they wanted for free of charge, without registration.

During the AJB DOC Film Festival, the audience had the opportunity to see 25 documentaries of world-class production.

The festival also hosted a platform called Industry Days.