15-10-2011

FESTIVALS: Filmmakers Gather at Zagreb

By FNE Staff

    ZAGREB: One hundred Croatian and international filmmakers are expected in Zabreb for the 9th edition of the Zagreb Film Festival (www.zagrebfilmfestival.com) taking place 16-23 October 2011. This year, eight Croatian short films will screen in the national "Checkers" competition.

    The Croatian competition consists of the following films: The First Lady of Dubrava directed byBarbara Vekarić; Bodiy Fluids directed by Dario Lonjak; Such a Beautiful Day directed by Romana Rožić; Komba directed by Tin Žanić; Lara directed by Hani Domazet; Irrelevant directed by Josip Žuvan; In a Hotel directed by Ante Pavlov; and Tuesday directed by Dalija Dozet.

    The main competition of feature films consists of 12 films, including the Slovenian film A Trip directed by Nejc Gazvoda; the Romanian-Hungarian coproduction Best Intentions directed by Adrian Sitaru, and a recent winner of the FNE Visegrad Prix; and Austrian fest favorite Michael directed by Markus Schleinzer.

    A meeting of the European Film Academy Board will take place as part of the festival, bringing together 15 film professionals from the world, including producer Yves Marmion, international distributor Adriana Chiesa di Palma, producers Mike Downey, Antonio Saura, Per Holst and Čedomir Kolar, director and screenwriter Goran Paskaljević, and Director of London National Film and Television School Nik Powell.

    The festival will also serve as a venue for the meeting on the project-in-the-making, Omnibus in Maribor: Loss of Innocence. The team working on this composite film includes Jan Cvitkovič from Slovenia, acclaimed Austrian documentarist Michael Glawogger, Hungarian director Gyorgy Palfi, Roberto Dordit and Antonio Nuić.

    Peter Suschitzky, David Cronenberg's director of photography, will be a member of the main jury. To honor him, this year's edition of Zagreb Film Festival will be closed with a screening of Cronenberg's last film, A Dangerous Method. The opening ceremony will be attended by Diarmid Scrimshaw, the producer of Tyrannosaur, an unconventional love story awarded at this year's Sundance for best directing and leading roles.

    Croatia will be represented by the directors whose films will have Croatian premieres at the ZFF. Miroslav Sikavica will present his film The Cloud, a story about Luka Ritz, a victim of juvenile violence. Director Željka Suková and actress Nina Violić will present Maria's Own. Saša Ban will attend with his Land of Knowledge, a film dealing with the student protests at the Zagreb faculty of Philosophy in 2010.