Thirteen debut and second films from all over the world are competing for this year’s Zagreb Film Festival’s Golden Pram – from Scandinavia to Oceania! Czech Republic and Iceland are presenting black humour dramas about family crises, and Latin America is sending powerful Venice Film Festival winners From Afar and Neon Bull. This year we are also celebrating a special anniversary – the first 10 years of the Checkers program!
At the media conference held 28 October at the Müller Hall in Zagreb’s Europa Cinema, the 13th edition of Zagreb Film Festival was presented by managing director Boris T. Matić, executive director Hrvoje Laurenta, program coordinator Selma Mehadžić, Yellow Bib for Kids by RBA and PLUS coordinator Katarina Crnčić, and director of Department for Direct Marketing at Croatian Telecom Sanja Milinović.
Boris T. Matić introduced the main competition which this year includes record-breaking 14 titles: ‘The feature fiction program this year includes films from all over the world, from Scandinavia to the Pacific islands of Vanuatu, 13 of them in competition. Czech Republic and Iceland have sent us comparable films – both countries are represented with two films, focusing on the subject of family and family matters. After the last year’s Of Horses and Men, Icelandic titles remain faithful to fauna – this year we will be screening family dramas Rams and Sparrows. Icelandic Oscar candidate and the best film in Un Certain Regard section in Cannes, Rams, directed by Grímur Hákonarson, is a story of two stubborn brothers who need to settle the score after 40 years to save their prized sheep herds. Multi-award winning Sparrows, directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson, is a story about a father, a weekend-drinker who lives like there is no tomorrow, and his estranged teenage son.
Judging by this year’s ZFF competition, the Czechs have also turned their cameras to dysfunctional families. The Czech Oscar candidate Home Care, directed by Slavek Horak, revolves around Vlasta, a home care nurse who devoted her life to caring about other people. When she finds out that she is severely ill, she tries to focus on herself, but her spoilt husband and emotionally distanced daughter provide her with no support. The Czech Family Film, directed by Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu, is a black comedy about a family where everything that can possibly go wrong goes wrong. The Danish Oscar candidate, drama War by Tobias Lindholm, focuses on a family torn apart by the father’s military mission to Afghanistan.
The 13th ZFF competition includes the winning film at most prestigious world festivals. The Venezuelan entry From Afar, directed by Lorenzo Vigas, won a Golden Lion as the first ever Latin American film to win this award. A co-writer of this story about a turbulent relationship between two men of different generations and classes is Guillermo Arriaga (the screenwriter of Babel, Amores Perros and 21 Grams). The Brazilian film Neon Bull is a story about a handsome young Brazilian rodeo rider who dreams of becoming a fashion designer. At Lido it won a jury special mention in the Horizons section. The chilling Hungarian thriller about the Holocaust, Son of Saul by debut director Laszlo Nemes, Bela Tarr’s former assistant, won three awards in Cannes – the jury Grand Prix, FIPRESCI Award and François Chalais Award. Two films in the program speak about growing up in a fresh and unconventional way: Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Martin Scorsese’s former assistant), the winner of a jury and audience special mention at Sundance Film Festival, and the French film The New Kid, award-winning in San Sebastian.
The 13th ZFF dedicates special attention to short film, which will this year be screened together with Checkers at Tuškanac cinema. Hrvoje Laurenta briefly mentioned the novelties in short competition: ‘This year we placed a special focus on the short film program, among other thing because of a special anniversary: the national competition Checkers is this year celebrating its 10th birthday. In its first decade Checkers have become one of the most important local platforms for the promotion of emerging filmmakers. The importance was additionally stressed with a long collaboration with the Croatian Film Directors Guild, which will guarantee a cash prize to the winner.’
The PLUS section this year has something new in store. ‘The PLUS program, intended for high schoolers, brings something new next to five catchy recent European film titles: this year the program became a competition, with a young jury deciding on the winner. The ninth ever Bib for Kids is marked by a new collaboration – with Raiffeisen Bank – to which aim we coloured the program: Yellow Bib for Kids by RBA, which will present eight cherry-picked European films for the youngest audience,’ said Katarina Crnčić, coordinator of the PLUS and Yellow Bib for Kids programs.
Program coordinator Selma Mehadžić introduced the non-competition programs: ‘The special program grows richer by the year and again includes the extremely popular section The Great 5 and Together Again, as well as our continuation with the European Parliament: this year the program LUX FILM Day screens three finalists for the LUX Award. My First Film this year focuses on Bosnia and Herzegovina, while a retrospective of Orson Welles’ films and an accompanying exhibition at HAZU Glyptotheque reminisce of this great filmmaker in the year celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth. Documentary films appear in the Making Of section and take us behind the scenes of famous feature narratives.’
Zagreb Film Festival’s program is from today available online. Another important news this year is that tickets are available for online purchase on our website, in addition to the festival ticket office.