The 25th Youth Film Festival and the 13th Four River Film Festival will be held from 8th to 12th September 2020 in Karlovac, co-organized by the Croatian Film Association and the Cinema Club Karlovac , and this year as many as 1,632 films have been submitted.
The audience was addressed by the mayor of Karlovac Damir Mandić and Marina Burić, the director of the Karlovac Tourist Board, functioning as representatives of the festival sponsors, as well as by the festival organizers Sanja Zanki Pejić, the head of educational and festival programs of the Croatian Film Association and Ksenija Sanković, the head of media programs of Cinema Club Karlovac .
Mayor Damir Mandić stated: “From the city’s perspective, support for this project is an obligation because this is not just another one of the city’s programs, seeing that the team from Cinema Club Karlovac were pioneers in many ways, including the organization of such events. I had no doubt that you would find a way to keep everything going this year, all the while respecting all epidemiological measures. I think it should be especially emphasized that you have not given up on the educational part of the festival because it gives the whole project a special importance. The one thing I mention every year and why I already feel a little awkward is that I hope that next year we will open the festival under the scaffolding at the Edison Cinema.”
Marina Burić, director of the Karlovac Tourist Board, also expressed her support: “I have to praise the festival team and the fact that they did not give up in these challenging times. The number of applicants speaks about the importance of the festival, but the fact that is even more interesting is that people from 99 different countries talked, mentioned and thought about Karlovac, and that is entirely thanks to this event. Therefore, we consider you a very valuable promoter of our city and content creator for our fellow citizens, as well as for all visitors who find themselves in the city. Because of your hard work, we are proud that you have accepted us as partners.”
Sanja Zanki Pejić, the head of educational and festival programs of the Croatian Film Association, spoke about the circumstances and the way in which the festival will be held: “This is our fourteenth year in Karlovac, the first in such unusual conditions, but we are glad that despite this situation we managed to break the festival’s record for the number of applications. This confirms that the Youth Film Festival and the Four River Film Festival are an excellent platform that has been recognized by high school authors themselves as a place where they want to showcase their films. This year, we received 1632 applications and our selection committee did not have an easy job because 71 films were accepted into the competition. Due to epidemiological measures, screenings of competing films will be held online. The opening and closing ceremonies will be available via stream on our website, as well as the films from the competition.”
Ksenija Sanković, the head of media programs at the Cinema Club Karlovac, invited the audience to all outdoor events: “Epidemiological measures allow for outdoor screenings, so we will continue this tradition. We start on Tuesday with a grand opening that will be at Foginovo beach at 8 pm The program includes the film The Voice by Ognjen Sviličić. What is special about that evening is that the director of photography on this film, Marinko Marinkić, started his career at our festival and is one of our laureates. We also invite you to join us at other outdoor screenings.” The film The Voice is about a young man named Goran who, upon arriving at a Catholic boarding school, finds himself under pressure to adhere to instant religion that is being imposed there.
On Wednesday, September 9, at 8:30 pm on river Kupa in the square next to the building of Kamanje municipality, we are watching the film Go, Went, Gone by Ljubo Zdjelarević in which Veronika accepts the invitation of her friend Kaja to join her and Vid on an adventurous journey from Zagreb to Istanbul, in order to heal her broken heart after a break up with Fran. On Thursday, September 10, we move to river Mrežnica, to the city beach in Duga Resa, where at 8:30 pm several films of former festival laureates who have become acclaimed authors will be shown. The program includes The Stamp by Lovro Mrđen, 6 half past 7 by Dalija Dozet, Steppe Fox by Andrija Mardešić and Do You Go Out? by Ines Jokoš. The last screening is on Friday, September 11 at 9 pm on the river Dobra in the yard of the Frankopan Castle in Ogulin, and Mater, the feature film debut of director and screenwriter Jure Pavlović, will be shown.
The daily schedule is filled with screenings of films in the competition and workshops, and the details about them can be found here: https://frff.com.hr/programschedule2020
We continue to grow as a global festival with a multitude of interesting and quality entries. The films have reached our four rivers from all continents and from as many as 99 countries, including Singapore, China, the United States, Bolivia, Uruguay, Mozambique and almost all European countries.
Out of the total of 1,445 films submitted, 28 were selected for the Four River Film Festival. We have 10 films each in the fiction and animated film categories. The program also includes 5 documentaries and 3 freestyle films. Authors from India stand out with the largest number of applications with as many as 183 submitted films.
The selection list of the 13th FRFF is available at the link: https://frff.com.hr/competitionfrff2020
187 films by Croatian authors aged 14 to 20 were submitted to the 25th Youth Film Festival, and 43 films were selected as part of the quacktastic competition, among which the most represented category is fiction film with 17 films. This is followed by the freestyle category with 12 films, the animated film category with 9 films and the documentary category with 5 films. The most represented clubs are the Blank film association, Zaprešić Photo Cinema Video Club, Cinema Club Karlovac, the Private Art Gymnasium from Zagreb and the School of Fine Arts from Split.
The selection list of the 25th Youth Film Festival is available at the link: https://frff.com.hr/competitionyff2020
The number of applications (1,632 films in total), which is growing year to year, despite the unfavorable and crisis events in the world, testifies to the great interest of young filmmakers for these film events, both in our region and internationally. Understanding them as important platforms for working, activity, encouragement and further motivation for young filmmakers is becoming more important and more represented than ever.
From this rich offer of submitted films, deciding which ones would be included in the competition program were members of the selection committee: Ana Đordić, a professor of Croatian language and philosophy and film teacher, Boško Picula, film critic, and Dinka Radonić, cinematographer and director. The awards at the festival will be given out by the so-called youth jury, i.e. a jury of high school students and an expert jury consisting of Irena Krčelić, an independent artist, screenwriter and playwright, Mato Ilijić, editor and professor of film editing and Sydney Levine, educator and consultant in the film industry.
