The Adelaide Film Festival announced its top prizes on October 20, 2026, with 'The Smell of Apples' taking the feature fiction award and Dragana Jurišić's 'The Balkan Cowboy' winning the feature documentary prize. The jury praised the documentary as "archival, innovative, and often unexpectedly funny" — a deeply personal journey through the Yugoslav wars and their aftermath. The awards were unveiled with just days left to run at the South Australian festival, which continues until October 25.
Illustration: a film festival awards stage with a glowing trophy under the spotlights. This is an AI-generated illustration, not a photograph of the real ceremony.
What Happened
On October 20, 2026, the Adelaide Film Festival revealed the winners of its feature competitions — the festival's most prestigious prizes. The top fiction award went to 'The Smell of Apples', while the feature documentary prize went to 'The Balkan Cowboy', the latest work by Dragana Jurišić.
Jurišić — born in the former Yugoslavia and now based in Dublin, where she is an artist, photographer and filmmaker and an assistant professor at Dublin City University's School of Communications — accepted the award as a guest of the festival. The jury said the film "takes an inventive, long-view approach to the wounds of history and the enduring divisions left by violent religious ethnonationalism," describing it as "archival, innovative, and often unexpectedly funny." It called the work a "moving exploration of the Yugoslav wars and their aftermath" that turns "a deeply personal journey" into something universal — "with wit, humanity, and a keen eye for the absurd."
In her acceptance, Jurišić thanked her funders — Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán, RTÉ, the Irish film tax credit and the Croatian Audio Visual Centre — along with producers Zlata Filipović and Anna Rodgers, co-producer Oliver Sertić, and the people of Bijeljina, where the film was shot. "The documentary was inspired by a film lover and a dreamer who brought people together through the process of filmmaking," she said, adding that she hoped it would continue to do that as it screens for audiences around the world.
The jury also gave special mentions to two other films: Aung Phyoe's 'Fruit Gathering', about a forbidden love in a Myanmar textile factory, in fiction; and Afsaneh Salari's 'Tehran, Under My Skin', a documentary offering what the jury called "startling access to the hectic, culturally complex world of plastic surgery in Tehran" — "intimate and probing," taking "an unjudgmental look at the hopes, anxieties, and economics of beauty."
The announcement coincided with the unveiling of the festival's Best of the Fest encore program, running from Monday, October 26. The encore lineup includes the opening-night film 'Wild Horse Nine', the closing-night film 'Hell Has No Fire Escape', 'The Man I Love', 'Kumarangk: Sacred Women's Business', 'How to Feed a Dictator' and 'All of a Sudden'.
Background
The Adelaide Film Festival is one of Australia's major screen events, held in Adelaide, South Australia. Its feature competitions have long been a showcase for independent cinema from Australia and around the world, with separate prizes recognizing fiction and documentary filmmaking at the highest level.
Illustration: vintage documentary film frames and a projector beam in a dark cinema, evoking the festival's documentary winners. This is an AI-generated illustration, not a photograph of any real film.
'The Balkan Cowboy' arrives with a distinctive pedigree. Jurišić is an award-winning artist and photographer whose work has moved fluidly between gallery and cinema, and the jury's description of the film — archival yet funny, personal yet historical — fits a filmmaker known for mixing forms. The project was inspired, in her words, by "a film lover and a dreamer who brought people together through the process of filmmaking," and it follows her journey back to the region where she was born, using archival material and contemporary encounters to confront the legacy of the Yugoslav wars.
The special-mention films point to the festival's international range. 'Fruit Gathering' tells a story of forbidden love set inside a Myanmar textile factory — a portrait of desire under pressure. 'Tehran, Under My Skin' turns its camera on Iran's booming cosmetic-surgery scene, which the jury found "memorable" for its unflinching but non-judgmental access to a world where beauty, anxiety and economics collide.
Why It Matters
Festival prizes are the lifeblood of independent cinema: for films like 'The Smell of Apples' and 'The Balkan Cowboy', a major award can mean the difference between obscurity and an international life — sales, distribution, streaming deals and further festival invitations. The Adelaide prizes add significant momentum to both films as they head into the wider awards season.
'The Balkan Cowboy' also lands at a moment when documentaries built from archival material and personal testimony are finding some of their largest audiences ever. The jury's language — "confronting the past may open new ways of understanding one another" — speaks to why festivals keep championing films that revisit old wounds: not for nostalgia, but for what the excavation reveals about the present.
And for Adelaide itself, the awards underline the festival's role as a genuine tastemaker rather than a stopover. Honoring a Dublin-based Yugoslav-born filmmaker's personal history alongside stories from Myanmar and Tehran — plus an encore program led by films like 'Wild Horse Nine' and 'Hell Has No Fire Escape' — it is programming that looks outward, and the prizes reinforce that identity.
What Happens Next
The festival itself is not over: screenings continue in Adelaide until October 25, giving local audiences the chance to catch the winning films on the big screen. Then, from October 26, the Best of the Fest encore program offers a second chance at the highlights, with 'Wild Horse Nine', 'Hell Has No Fire Escape', 'The Man I Love', 'Kumarangk: Sacred Women's Business', 'How to Feed a Dictator' and 'All of a Sudden' all returning.
Beyond Adelaide, the winners now enter the next phase of the festival circuit. 'The Balkan Cowboy', in Jurišić's own words, will go on to screen "to the audiences around the world" — and a major documentary prize is exactly the kind of laurel that opens doors at international festivals and with distributors. 'The Smell of Apples' can expect a similar boost on the fiction side.
The longer arc will be watched with interest: will 'The Balkan Cowboy' follow the path of other prize-winning archival documentaries into awards contention beyond the festival world? And will 'The Smell of Apples' parlay its fiction win into the kind of international breakout that Adelaide's top prize has sometimes delivered before? The encore screenings from October 26 are the first test of how far the festival's blessing carries.
Illustration: a cinema audience watching a film in a grand theater. This is an AI-generated illustration, not a photograph of the real festival audience.
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FAQ
What won at the Adelaide Film Festival 2026?
The feature fiction prize went to 'The Smell of Apples', and the feature documentary prize went to Dragana Jurišić's 'The Balkan Cowboy'. Special mentions went to Aung Phyoe's 'Fruit Gathering' (fiction) and Afsaneh Salari's 'Tehran, Under My Skin' (documentary). The winners were announced on October 20, 2026.
What is 'The Balkan Cowboy' about?
It is a documentary by Dublin-based filmmaker Dragana Jurišić that the jury described as "archival, innovative, and often unexpectedly funny" — a personal journey exploring the Yugoslav wars and their aftermath, and the enduring divisions left by what the jury called "violent religious ethnonationalism."
Who is Dragana Jurišić?
Born in the former Yugoslavia and now based in Dublin, Jurišić is an award-winning artist, photographer and filmmaker, and an assistant professor at Dublin City University's School of Communications. The film was supported by Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán, RTÉ, the Irish film tax credit and the Croatian Audio Visual Centre.
When does the Adelaide Film Festival end?
The festival runs until October 25, 2026, in Adelaide, South Australia. A Best of the Fest encore program — including 'Wild Horse Nine', 'Hell Has No Fire Escape' and 'The Man I Love' — plays from Monday, October 26.
Where can I find the official winners?
Australian screen-trade outlets IF Magazine and FilmInk both published the full prize announcement and jury citations on October 20, 2026.
Sources
- IF Magazine — "'The Smell of Apples', 'The Balkan Cowboy' win Adelaide Film Festival feature prizes" (October 20, 2026)
- FilmInk — "'The Smell of Apples', 'The Balkan Cowboy' win major prizes at Adelaide Film Festival" (October 20, 2026)
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