‘The Last Socialist Artefact’ Wins Big At Hearts Of Sarajevo Awards For TV Series

Produced in conjunction with Serbia, Slovenia and Finland, Croatian six-part mini-series The Last Socialist Artefact had the perfect pedigree to take top honors in the Hearts of Sarajevo Awards for TV Series, a regional award set up to celebrate the past year’s best small-screen talent from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Slovenia.

A study of today’s post-industrial world presented with humor and warmth, The Last Socialist Artefact tells the story of two city guys who take over a disused turbine factory in a depressed backwater with the intention of reopening it. The series’ near-grand slam of awards, winning five of the eight available, was contested by two detective mysteries from Serbian: Awake and Black Wedding.

The inaugural Comedy awards were a little more evenly spread, with the main awards split between Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Advokado, once memorably described as being a kind of “Balkan Dumb & Dumber”, and Serbia’s family holiday-set series Strange Kind of Loves.

On a bittersweet note, the award for Best Leading Actor went to the late Mustafa Nadarević, the celebrated Bosnian actor who died of cancer in November 2020, for his work in Crazy, Confused, Normal(Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Deadline is media partner for this year’s edition of the TV awards. Here’s the full list of winners below:

Best Drama Series

The Last Socialist Artefact

Best Leading Actress—Drama Series

Ivana Vuković (Awake)

Best Leading Actor—Drama Series

Izudin Bajrović (The Last Socialist Artefact)

Best Supporting Actress—Drama Series

Lana Barić (The Last Socialist Artefact)

Best Supporting Actor—Drama Series

Slavko Štimac (Black Wedding)

Rising Star–Drama Series