31 European films in competitions in Zagreb

by Vladan Petkovic

14/10/2010 - The 8th Zagreb Film Festival (October 17-23), will present competition programmes of first or second films in feature, documentary and shorts sections.

Features in competition include Jorgen Bergmark’s A Rational Solution [trailer, film focus], winner of Arte France Cinema Award at Rotterdam; Calin Peter Netzer’s Medal of Honor [trailer], winner of five awards at Thessaloniki, including the Silver Alexander; Feo Aladag’s When We Leave [trailer, film focus], winner of Label Europa Cinemas at Berlin and in competition for the European Parliament LUX Prize 2010 (see the video interview); Babak Najafi’s Sebbe [trailer], winner of Best Debut Film at Berlin; Ivan-Goran Vitez’s Forest Creatures [trailer, film focus], winner of Best Costume Design and Best Editing at Croatia’s national Pula Film Festival; Nikola Lezaic’s Tilva Rosh, winner of Best Film and Best Actor at Sarajevo; Benjamin Heisenberg’s The Robber [trailer, film focus], winner of Best Director at the Palic Festival of European Film; and Samantha Morton’s The Unloved.

Non-European feature films are Debra Granik’s Winter Bone (US) which took Grand Jury Prize in Dramatic Competition at Sundance, as well as Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award; Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats (Canada), winner of Grand Prix at the Sydney Film Festival; and Taika Waititi’s Boy from New Zealand.

In the documentary competition, Europe has 14 out of the total of 16 films, including Heloisa Sartorato’s I Am Jesus (Italy), Janis Jurkovis’ Children of Karosta (Estonia/Latvia), Ross McDonnell’s Colony (Ireland), Diana Fabianova’s The Moon Inside You (Slovakia/Spain/France), Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop [trailer] (UK), Tomek Wysokinski’s Incantatio (Poland), Alexander Nanau’s The World According to Ion B. (Romania) and Vanja Kovacevic’s A Star Is Born (Serbia).

In the shorts section, nine out of the ten films come from Europe.