Blerta Basholli’s new film won two top prizes on the same night.

On Saturday, “Dua” took the Grand Prix at the CinEast festival in Luxembourg and the Antigone d’Or, worth €15,000, at Cinemed, the Mediterranean film festival in Montpellier, France.

The awards add to a remarkable year for the film, which is Kosova’s official entry for Best International Feature at the 2027 Academy Awards.

“Dua” follows a 13-year-old girl growing up in Prishtina in the late 1990s, when Albanian pupils were taught in private homes and the city was edging toward war. Basholli, who grew up in Prishtina, built the story from her own memories and those of friends and relatives.

The film premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, where it won the SACD Award for its screenplay, and later received a special mention at the Zurich Film Festival.

It is not the first time Basholli has carried Kosova into the Oscar race. Her debut, “Hive”, won three awards at Sundance in 2021, including the Grand Jury Prize, and became the first Kosovar film ever to make the Oscar shortlist.

Born in Prishtina in 1983, Basholli studied film at New York University, where she received the Dean’s Fellowship at the Tisch School of the Arts, and lived in New York for about four years before returning home.

“Dua” was co-written with Swiss screenwriter Nicole Borgeat and produced by Kosova, Switzerland and France.

The Academy will announce its shortlist on 15 December, nominations follow on 21 January, and the Oscars ceremony takes place on 14 March 2027.