Our goals are what makes us happy and keeps us motivated to do better. Be they short-term or long-term, it’s important to “score” goals – and 84 young filmmakers just did, out of the grand total of 1415 applicants to this year’s Four River Film Festival and the Youth Film Festival who tried to do just that.
The selection committee has done a great job and selected 84 titles out of a total of 1415 applications, which will be shown this year from September 7 to 11 in Karlovac at the Four River Film Festival and the Youth Film Festival, co-organized by the Croatian Film Association and Cinema Club Karlovac.
Although the whole of last year has been marked by the pandemic, we are glad to see that so many young filmmakers seized this opportunity, grabbed some lemons and made the best film lemonade out of them!
But, as the members of the selection committee say – Ana Đordić, PhD, professional cinematographer Dinka Radonić, and Boško Picula, PhD, the consequences of the pandemic were reflected in the type of films submitted to the Festivals. Animated film profited from the pandemic, but the number of submitted documentaries was significantly lower than in all previous years, which is not surprising due to difficult production conditions at a time when justified epidemiological measures have hampered not only art production in general, but have also greatly changed our way of life.
However, the selection committee sees hope in these films which show that the creative potential and imagination of young people do not diminish even in the most difficult of times, and that when life gives them lemons, young filmmakers make the best film lemonade.
The taste of 84 film lemonades will be judged by a professional jury made of Matea Milić, the producer of the World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb, film editor Hrvoje Mršić and film director Nemanja Ćeranić.
The Youth Jury is comprised of young film enthusiasts from the Four River Film Festival’s partners. Young filmmakers from all over the world watch all the films in the national and international competition programmes during the five festival days, and finally give out seven awards: for best screenplay, directing, cinematography, editing, male and female acting, and the Yellow Flag Award.
This year’s films have arrived from as many as 50 countries around the world, and these modern fairy tales, imaginative music videos and films that deal with topics that occupy young people every day will convince us once again that the creativity of youth can really accomplish anything!
