15/06/2015 - The 62nd edition of Croatia's national Pula Film Festival will feature 14 films in the main competition

Croatia’s national Pula Film Festival (18-25 July) has announced its programme, which includes 14 feature-length films and 16 shorts in the main national competition for the Golden Arena awards, as well as an international competition with 14 films, including the world premiere of Next to Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stevan Filipović
film profile] by Serbian director Stevan Filipović (Skinning). 

Besides the new national films, the Croatian line-up includes minority co-productions, such as the Serbian box-office hit We Will Be the World Champions [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Darko Bajić, which sold over 240,000 admissions in Serbia and Bosnia; last year's Sarajevo competition title Cure – The Life of Another [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrea Staka
film profile] by Andrea Štaka (Switzerland); and the festival hit No One's Child [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Vuk Ršumović (Serbia).

The competition also features Dalibor Matanić's The High Sun [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dalibor Matanic
interview: Tihana Lazovic
film profile], which recently won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes; Ognjen Sviličić's These Are the Rules [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a prize-winner at Venice (Horizons), Stockholm, Les Arcs, Warsaw and Belgrade FEST; and Ivona Juka's You Carry Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivona Juka
film profile], which will world-premiere in Karlovy Vary's East of the West section.

The selection includes Ungiven [+see also:
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trailer
film profile], the new film by Branko Schmidt (Vegetarian Cannibal [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]); Daniel Kušan's Love or Death [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the second instalment in the series based on the popular children's book about the boy Koko; The Enchanting Porkers [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the long-awaited feature debut by Ivan Livaković; and the omnibus film Zagreb Stories Vol 3.  

Four documentaries round off the national competition programme: Heart of Sarajevo winner Naked Island [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Tiha Gudac, Children of Transition by Matija Vukšić, Borut Šeparović's Consumed and Damir Čučić's The Spirits Diary.

“2015 was a good year for Croatian production, and we have a few strong films from last year as well, which screened at Venice and other festivals,” says producer and Pula artistic board member Mike Downey. “This is a good indication of the excellent work being done in development at HAVC; people are working harder on the screenplays, the bar has been set higher, and work is being done to improve the writing of funded projects. We are looking forward to an excellent crop in 2016 as well.” 

The Croatian competition jury consists of director Kristijan Milić (last year's winner of eight Golden Arenas with Number 55 [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), composer and sound designer Srdjan Kurpjel (Eisenstein in Guanajuato [+see also:
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interview: Peter Greenaway
film profile]), actor Zlatko Kićo Burić (the Pusher [+see also:
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film profile] trilogy, The Reaper [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Zvonimir Jurić
film profile]), the artistic director of the Cottbus Film Festival, Bernd Buder, and writer Maurizio Braucci (Pasolini [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Abel Ferrara
film profile], Gomorrah [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Domenico Procacci
interview: Jean Labadie
interview: Matteo Garrone
film profile]).

The international competition boasts titles such as Dheepan [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Jacques Audiard
film profile], The Lobster [+see also:
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Q&A: Yorgos Lanthimos
film profile], Parabellum [+see also:
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interview: Lukas Valenta Rinner
film profile], Trash [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile], Bota [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Iris Elezi
film profile] and Koza [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský
film profile], and is organised as part of Rendez-vous – the French festival in Croatia. It will be judged by a jury comprising Croatian producer Olinka Vištica, Serbian director Srdjan Dragojević and British journalist Christopher Goodwin. 

The full list of international competition titles can be found here. 

A jury called “Friends and Neighbours”, which includes Karlovy Vary's Karel Och, Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile] writer Rebecca Lenckiewicz and Martina Petrović of Creative Europe Croatia, will pick the best film from the region from among all of the programmes. 

Other sidebars include Short Pula (a competition selection of 16 Croatian short films), a Short Matters section, the youth-orientated Dizalica programme and the children's Pulica programme.