"Grbavica", the name of a suburb of Sarajevo but is also a term for "woman with a hump" that refers to raped women, was one of 19 films competing for this year's festival's top honours. The film about the agony of women raped as part of ethnic cleansing which Serb forces carried out in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, was chosen by an eight-member international jury headed by internationally renowned British actress Charlotte Rampling.
The film was co-produced by Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia's Culture Ministry and the Croatian 'Jadran Film' company as well as Austrian and German cinematographic companies.
"I am dreaming this," said 31-year-old Zbanic at the Gala award ceremony event in Berlin.
"I would like to take the opportunity to remind us all of the fact that the war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic still live undisturbed in Europe," she said at the ceremony on Saturday evening.
Croatian actor Leon Lucev played the leading male role in "Grbavica", which also won the Peace Film Award at Berlinale, which the festival and the United Nations award together.