Gold Hugo in Chicago for 'The Dreamed Adventure' – award for Yana Radeva too
Valeska Grisebach's German-Bulgarian co-production is best film at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival. Bulgaria's Yana Radeva wins the Silver Hugo for best lead performance.
Archive image · Photo: Gabriel Hutchinson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Valeska Grisebach's "The Dreamed Adventure" has won the Gold Hugo for best film at the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival. Bulgarian Yana Radeva also received the Silver Hugo for best lead performance. The jury said the film takes the Western to the easternmost edge of Europe and described its heroine as a woman whose quiet strength and independence become an act of resistance in a male-dominated world.
The co-production between Germany, France, Bulgaria and Austria is set in the border region of Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey and, according to BTA, was shot in summer 2024 around Svilengrad, using only Bulgarian non-professional actors. It is Grisebach's second feature made in Bulgaria after "Western" (2017). The film won the Jury Prize in Cannes and is Bulgaria's submission for the Oscar for best international feature.
Other Silver Hugos went to Marine Atlan and the ensemble of "La Gradiva" (director and ensemble) and to Sandra Wollner's "Everytime" (Jury Award). The festival ran from October 14 to 25 and screened 113 features and 57 shorts from around 60 countries.