FIPRESCI, the international critics group, named Fiume o morte! the best documentary of 2025, beating out Oscar winner Mr. Nobody Against Putin and Oscar nominee The Perfect Neighbor.
The announcement of the inaugural FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix was made on the opening night of Millennium Docs Against Gravity in Warsaw, Poland. As Deadline previously reported, the newly created award will be announced every year at MDAG.
The jury for the Grand Prix was comprised of all FIPRESCI members, “representing over 50 national sections and individual members from more than 30 additional countries,” according to a release. Filmmaker Igor Bezinović, who hails from Rijeka, Croatia, directed Fiume o morte!, which centers on an odd and significant moment in history when a paramilitary group led by Italian nationalist and poet Gabriele D’Annunzio claimed the city of Fiume – now known as Rijeka, Croatia – for Italy.
“Bezinović teams up with 300 residents to create a subversive, punk-style reenactment that dismantles nationalist myths and exposes the spectacle of political performativity,” notes a release.
FIPRESCI
The Grand Prix win for Fiume o morte! must be considered a surprise, even though it won the European Film Award for Best European Documentary, along with many other prizes around the world. It qualified for Oscar consideration as Best Documentary Feature but didn’t get a real campaign. Fiume o morte! won the FIPRESCI Grand Prix over much better-known films, including Oscar-shortlisted 2000 Meters to Andriivka, directed by Oscar winner Mstyslav Chernov, and Orwell: 2+2=5, directed by Raoul Peck. Mr. Nobody Against Putin, directed by David Borenstein and co-directed by Pavel Talankin, won the Oscar in March, where that film went up against The Perfect Neighbor, directed by Geeta Gandbhir.
Fiume o morte! will screen at MDAG on Saturday with the director present. Igor Bezinović was on hand for the Grand Prix announcement on the opening night of MDAG.
“It’s amazing to be here and to see the documentary Grand Prix goes to our film,” Bezinović told the audience. “And especially because the occasion is very specific and very special because it’s the first time that the FIPRESCI jury decided to give an award to a documentary film and to start a new tradition… I guess that in a few years’ time, we’ll go back and see the list of many films that will be awarded. And for us, it will always be very special [because] we were the first ones to get this award.”
Bezinović also touched on the significance of the award – when what constitutes “movie reviews” may be no more than someone tapping out a social media post. FIPRESCI members are established professionals – journalists, film critics, and scholars.
“It means a lot, especially today when people are able to write their own reviews whenever they want,” he commented. “Just to have a label of a review that comes from a film expert [like FIPRESCI members], I think it means a lot.”
