For the 8th time Split is going to be the movie centre of the Mediterranean, from 5th to 13th June. Mediterranean Film Festival will be screening 66 films from 31 different countries, placed in three different locations with 45 premieres in Croatia.
The entire movie list, in which citizens of Split and their guest will enjoy during the nine days of the festival, has been revealed on today's press conference that took place in Art Gallery. The festival opens with Italian- Albanian film "Sworn Virgin". This will be the regional premiere of the debut film of the director Laura Bispuri that won over the audience and the critique during the this year Berlinale.
Feature-length programme of Mediterranean film festival comprises eight regional and three national movie premieres, and taking into consideration that in the last year's programme many famous directors took part in, this year we are screening seven debut films for the competition.
"Together with "Sworn Virgin" I would also like to single out the Bulgarian-Greek film "Lesson" and the Spanish film "Flowers" that received many rewards during various festivals and the film "Chlorine" that had its firs run on Sundance. We also have a national premiere of the debut film "Bijela Kuća" directed by Ranko Pauković. It is a documentary that deals with local themes, such as Brac stone, island of Brac and bancruptcy of Jadrankamen. "Nicije Dete" is a debut film of Vuk Rsumović, shot in Croatian- Serbian co-production and it was huge during the festival in Venice where it won the audience award. " revealed Alen Munitić, the manager of the festival.
One of the famous movie titles on this year's festival is certainly a Spanish movie "The Swamp" directed by Alber Rodriguez that won 10 Goya awards, including the ones for the best picture, direction, scenario and male leading role, together with a special jury award in San Sebastian.
For the first time, as the part of the official programme, we are screening a mini series, a commedy "Little Quinquin" by a French director Bruno Dumont that won two awards in Cannes. The winner of San Sebastian also arrives in Split, the film "A New Friend" directed by Francois Ozon and the film "Heaven" by famous French director Mia Hansen- Love that won an award as a part of the programme Un Certain Regard in Cannes.
"This year's festival, besides the extraordinary movie titles in the competition, introduces some news in the programme "outside the competition"
From this year we decided to choose at least three movie titles every festival that leave the framework of the Mediterranean. In that way we want to connect the Festival with our other project "Kino Mediteran" where we try to revitalize movie theatres all over Croatia and where we screen selected movie titles from European and world production. The audience in Split has not yet seen these movies and after the Festival they will start a journey around the islands "- told Munitić, revealing the reasons for expanding the festival.
A fantastic Mexican omnibus film "Short Plays" will be screened, in which famous directors from 31 countries on their own way depict their passion for football. The festival will be closed by the Scandinavians, we will be screening one of the most attractive films in the last year "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence" by Swedish expert Roy Andersson, the winner of The Golden Lion in Venice, while the programme in Bacvice will be closed with a Norwegian film "Out of Nature" directed by Ole Giaever that impressed the audience in Berlin.
Every year short films are getting more and more popular on Mediterranean film festival in Split.
“In free movie theatre in Art Gallery we will be screening every night foreign short films that won in total more that 100 awards at festivals all around the world and that speaks a lot about the quality of this year’s programme for which we received more than 250 applications.”- praised Munitić.
From the programme of Croatian short films titled “Jeske” we should definitely single out short movies from Split “Medo mali” and “Dan Marjana” by Igor Jelinović, “Vrag u gospođici Jones” by Josip Lukić and “Utvrda Utopija” by Sandra Sterla. As the part of the programme there is also a praised short film “Da je kuća dobra i vuk bi je imao” by Hana Jušić, “Odvajanje” by Nina Violić and documentaries “Ana Trg” by Jelena Novaković and “Riba ribi grize rep” by Neven Hitrec. For the first time, as the part of the programme there are two animated films,“Razgovor” by Ana Horvat and “Levitacija” by Marko Meštrović.
Despite the last year’s record numbers and sold out festival, the city of Split has drastically decreased the budget for the festival and therefore some alterations happened at the last minute.
We always respect the decisions of the city and the film council; however we were surprised by the decision that we encountered two months before the festival needed to be ready. Because of that, we were forced to give up our traditional programme that included music documentaries, i.e. the retrospective we had prepared regarding the 120th film anniversary. Also, this year we will not have international guests and a jury, therefore the audience will decide about the winners. Precisely, the audience is supporting the festival by purchasing the tickets and that is why we invested in the programme and the technical aspect that is still on the level as it is for the best film festivals worldwide and ticket prices are still the same. We believe that the audience will reward our effort in sold out movie theatres, as they do every year. “ concluded Alen Munitić and thanked the sponsors and associates at the end of the press conference.
Full attractive programme of 8th Mediterranean Film Festival, in cooperation with Animafest, Zagreb Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Operacija kino and Cirkuska srijeda. The online ticket sale has started. For those “old-fashioned” box offices will be opened on 1st June in Kinoteka.
