09/11/2021 - This year’s film programme, consisting mainly of award-winning and tried-and-tested movies, promises to please audiences, while the diverse industry schedule will attract local film professionals

Judging by the film titles, the 19^th edition of the Zagreb Film Festival, unspooling physically at several venues from 14-21 November, as well as online on the platforms kinoeuropa.hr and croatian.film, will be extremely audience-friendly. The main competition programme, consisting of first and second features, opens with this year’s threefold winner of the Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Competition, Blerta Basholli’s Hive [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Blerta Basholli
interview: Yllka Gashi
film profile], and it also features Palme d’Or- and Golden Lion-winning titles: Julia Ducourneau’s Titane [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Julia Ducournau, Vincent Li…
film profile] and Audrey Diwan’s Happening [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anamaria Vartolomei
film profile], respectively. The Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe winner As Far as I Can Walk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Arsenijević
film profile], directed by Stefan Arsenijević, will also be screened, along with the Sarajevo and Viennale winner, Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sebastian Meise
film profile], and other reputed festival titles such as Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juho Kuosmanen
film profile], Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valdimar Jóhannsson
film profile] and the Oscar nominee The Man Who Sold His Skin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile], written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.

The headliner of the second competition programme, Together Again, which features films by some of the previous laureates of the festival, will be Radu Jude’s Golden Bear-winning Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile]. Among the other films in the competition, viewers will also find the newest outings by Asghar Farhadi (A Hero [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Asghar Farhadi
film profile]), Jonas Carpignano (A Chiara [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Carpignano
film profile]) and Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
film profile]). There are also two competitive selections of shorts, one international and one national (titled Checkers), which will screen a range of carefully selected titles.

Among the non-competitive sections, The Big Five, held in collaboration with the network of European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC Croatia), will feature six films from the five largest cinematic countries in Europe (the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy), while six will be screened as part of the programme of the Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region (see the news). The initiative, launched this spring, combines four festivals from as many countries – the Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the Auteur Film Festival (Serbia), the Herceg Novi Film Festival (Montenegro) and the Zagreb Film Festival (Croatia). Other partner festivals, such as Locarno, Sofia, Clermont-Ferrand, Tampere and Ljubljana, have selected programmes that will be featured in the Festivals in the Spotlight section. The film programme is rounded off by two sections for younger audiences, Focus (for teenagers and secondary-school students) and Kinokino (for younger, elementary-school children), and the Icebreakers retrospective will be dedicated to pioneering female filmmakers from Eastern Europe.

The industry section of the Zagreb Film Festival is also rich and diverse, content-wise. As in previous years, new forms of cinema-related creativity, such as TV series and video games, will also be represented. The traditional My First Script workshop will be held under the mentorship of seasoned regional scriptwriters Antonio Nuić and Pjer Žalica, who will be joined by veteran script consultant, screenwriting teacher and BAFTA member David Pope. The Industry Youth! programme is back this year with six projects from the six film academies in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, which will also be presented at the pitching forum. Three master classes will be held by actress Katia Pescariu, of Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn fame, director Stefan Arsenijević (who helmed As Far as I Can Walk) and award-winning cinematographer Vanja Černjul. Finally, the Spotlight Italy panel will also take place, with the aim being to further strengthen the collaboration between Italian and Croatian cinema.