by FilmInk Staff
‘BEST OF THE FEST’ – ENCORE SCREENINGS ANNOUNCED
The Smell of Apples, by South African director John Trengove, has won the Feature Fiction Competition prize at the Adelaide Film Festival with The Balkan Cowboy, from Dublin-based Croatian filmmaker and visual artist Dragan Jurišić, taking out the Feature Documentary Competition.
The AFF Competition Jury gave a Special Mention in the Feature Fiction category to Fruit Gathering, from director Aung Phyoe, about a forbidden love blossoming in a Myanmar textile factory; and a Special Mention in the Feature Documentary Competition to Tehran, Under the Skin, directed by Afsaneh Salari, about the epidemic of plastic surgery amongst Iranian women.
The Smell of Apples is set in apartheid-era South Africa, where an 11-year-old boy’s idyllic childhood is fractured when he is awakened to the reality of violence and inequality.
John Trengove is a South African writer and director. His debut feature, The Wound (2017), premiered at Sundance and Berlin, won the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature at the BFI London Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His second feature, Manodrome (2023) premiered in competition at Berlin in 2023. Trengove co-wrote The Smell of Apples with Christopher Ciancimino.
The AFF 2026 Jury is Cameron Bailey, CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival; internationally acclaimed South Australian Xavier Samuel (Send Help, Elvis); Malaysian filmmaker and academic Sandeep Ray; Adelaide-based based writer, director and actor Tilda Cobham-Hervey (I Am Woman, Apple Cider Vinegar); and Adelaide-based producer Anna Vincent (Golda, I Am Mother). Cameron Bailey was supported to travel to Australia by Screen Australia.
In announcing the Feature Fiction Competition Award winner and Special Mention, the Jury said: “The Jury congratulates the Adelaide Film Festival for the wide range of global stories and styles of storytelling we discovered in the fiction film competition.
“For its insightful portrait of a young woman embarking on a journey of quiet but intense passion, the jury awards a special mention to Fruit Gathering, directed by Aung Phyoe.
“Among the Feature Fiction films, the jury was especially impressed by a film made with both visual and narrative precision. For its devastating story of family, secrets and violence seen through the unblinking eyes of a child, the jury awards the Feature Fiction Competition Prize to The Smell of Apples, directed by John Trengove.”
On receiving news of the Award, John Trengove said: “I’m humbled and delighted by this news. The Smell of Apples was a labour of love, and I owe everything to the incredible team who took this journey with me. To see our film resonate with audiences far and wide is immensely gratifying. Thank you to the Adelaide Film Festival for this recognition, it is deeply appreciated.”
As a child, Dragana Jurišić adored Westerns, both American and from the mysterious former-Yugoslavian have-a-go hero, Hari Džekson. But who was Hari really? Jurišić’s kookily charming, if occasionally chilling, Sarajevo Film Festival competition documentary The Balkan Cowboy attempts to fill in the blanks blurred by war crimes.
Born in the former Yugoslavia and now based in Dublin, award-winning artist, photographer and filmmaker Dragana Jurišić is an assistant professor at Dublin City University’s School of Communications.
In announcing the Feature Documentary Competition award for The Balkan Cowboy, the Jury said: “The Jury awards a Special Mention to Tehran, Under My Skin, a memorable film offering the viewer startling access to the hectic, culturally complex world of plastic surgery in Tehran. Intimate and probing, it takes an unjudgmental look at the hopes, anxieties, and economics of beauty.
“The Jury awards the Best Documentary Prize to a film that takes an inventive, long-view approach to the wounds of history and the enduring divisions left by violent religious ethnonationalism. Archival, innovative, and often unexpectedly funny, The Balkan Cowboy turns a deeply personal journey into a moving exploration of the Yugoslav wars and their aftermath. With wit, humanity, and a keen eye for the absurd, the film reminds us that confronting the past may open new ways of understanding one another.”
Dragana Jurišić, who was a guest of the Festival, said: “I spent the most welcoming, fun and wonderful days at the Adelaide Film Festival 2026. I am so grateful to learn of the Best Documentary Award for The Balkan Cowboy. My heartfelt thanks to the Jury and the brilliant team at Adelaide Film Festival.
“The Festival was a warm and inclusive space and I am so fortunate to have had a chance to attend. I would like to use this opportunity to thank our funders: Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán, RTÉ and the Irish film tax credit and the Croatian Audio Visual Centre. Thanks also to my producers Zlata Filipović, Anna Rodgers and co-producer Oliver Sertić, the brilliant cast and crew, the family of Hari Džekson and the people of Bijeljina where we shot this film. The documentary was inspired by a film lover and a dreamer who brought people together through the process of filmmaking and I hope it will continue to do that as it goes on to screen to the audiences around the world.”
The Smell of Apples and The Balkan Cowboy will both screen again this weekend at Adelaide Film Festival (Saturday October 24), and there are also screenings at the Festival this week of Tehran, Under My Skin and Fruit Gathering.
The AFF Feature Fiction Competition and Documentary Competition filmmaker prizes were supported by the Nunn Dimos Foundation.
As the 2026 Festival approaches a historic record number of tickets sold – and because it’s too soon to say goodbye! – AFF has also announced its Best of the Fest encore screening program, which commences Monday October 26.
Following sell out screenings during the Festival, AFF’s opening night film Wild Horse Nine, closing night film Hell Has No Fire Escape, The Man I Love, South Australia’s Kumarangk: Sacred Women’s Business, How to Feed a Dictator and All of a Sudden will screen again from next Tuesday October 27 through to Thursday October 29.
Details here: https://www.adelaidefilmfestival.org/
