Film Fest Honors Serb-Croat Story

A Romeo-and-Juliet story of two lovers in what used to be Yugoslavia won the top award Thursday at the first Newport Beach International Film Festival, which continues through Sunday.

“Vukovar Poste Restante,” shot in war-ravaged Sarajevo, took the festival’s Jury Award for “best representing the type of films we want now and for the future of the festival,” said Jeffrey S. Conner, the festival’s executive director.

A 15-member jury of entertainment professionals, educators and local business leaders voted on the award, announced during a ceremony at Planet Hollywood.

Based on the true story of a Croatian woman and a Serbian man, the 1994 film “is unforgettable, heart-wrenching,” Conner said. “You take a wonderful story and put it against the backdrop of a country literally being torn apart, and it makes it that much more important.”

The film, directed by Boro Draskovic, an American, was screened Saturday. Three other entries, which also already have been shown, won prizes as well:

* “A Weekend in the Country,” a comedy starring Jack Lemmon, took the Audience Award;

* “Miss Sarajevo,” a documentary, won the Maverick Award for director Bill Carter who, according to Conner, made the film on a minimal budget while living in a bombed-out building in Sarajevo under constant threat of sniper fire;

* “Yellow Lotus” by Tony Bui, about a Vietnamese fisherman, won the Short Film Award. Conner said Bui shot the film in Vietnam “with censors looking over his shoulder.”

The festival is presenting 85 films. This weekend’s screenings will take place at UC Irvine and at Chapman University in Orange.

More than 10,000 tickets to festival offerings had been sold by Wednesday night, Conner said. He declined to reveal the total number of tickets that had been available but said he is “very, very pleased” with the turnout so far. “I have never focused on ticket sales; that’s never been our goal.” Though some screenings have been sparsely attended, he added, others have been sold out.

Conner said he has been especially pleased with reactions from festival-goers, some of whom have sent thank-you cards, flowers, candy and cigars.

Philomena Mark, a first-grade teacher and film buff who drove in from San Bernardino on Tuesday to see an American film called “Nothing but Sun” and an Australian film called “Car Crash,” had nothing but praise for the festival. “It’s great that they put this together,” she said.