Croatian films to be showcased in May with 450 screenings

Zagreb, April 30 – This May Croatian films will be in the spotlight as the Month of Our Film is held again.

From May 2nd to May 31st, 70 domestic Croatian films, will be showcased through 450 screenings across 70 cinemas in over 50 cities throughout Croatia, as announced at a press conference held on Monday at Urania in Zagreb.

With the subtitle “70 Years of Film Festivals,” this year’s focus of the Month revolves around festivals and consequently the films recognised and awarded at them.

The first edition of Our Film Month took place in 2023 as part of the year-long celebration marking 15 years of activity of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC).

Following the excellent response from cinemas, the film community, and the audience, the idea was for this event to become continuous.

(Photo: Nina Đurđević)

The project was presented this year by Chris Marcich, director of the HAVC, assistant director Maja Vukić, the program selector for this year’s edition of Our Film Month Boško Picula, head of publishing activities at the Croatian Film Association and film critic Diana Nenadić, and the president of the Cinema Network, Danijela Fabric Fabijanac.

Already during the organisation of the first edition of Our Film Month, which was initially conceived as a one-time program, we recorded excellent reactions and motivation from cinemas within the Cinema Network, as well as other independent cinemas and multiplexes.

A quality synergy focused on connecting domestic films with the audience was created, so the decision to launch Our Film Month as an independent project emerged as a logical sequence of events, stated Chris Marcich.

(Photo: Nina Đurđević)

The main mission of the Month is to encourage the audience to go to the cinemas through a specially designed program and consequently to actively engage in following domestic films in general.

The activities of HAVC also include constantly contemplating new ways to remind the audience of the diversity and richness of domestic production. We want the audience to watch films and thus question attitudes, change perspectives, acquire new knowledge, and reshape their own understanding of the world.

Through this project, we aim to create an atmosphere and ensure support so that through a well-designed program, all existing cinemas throughout Croatia offer the local community the opportunity to immerse themselves in domestic films, added Marcich.

(Photo: Nina Đurđević)

This year’s Our Film Month is thematically connected to the operation of film festivals. After the program selector Boško Picula selected films and created the program, we offered the films to cinemas within the Cinema Network (which consists of 55 cinemas), other independent cinemas, and multiplexes.

Films were organised into program packages so that cinemas could include diverse film content – each package includes short and feature films as well as various genres; animated, documentary, fiction, experimental.

This project would not have been possible to realise without the good cooperation with film producers, authors, and of course, cinemas, stated assistant director Maja Vukić. We are very pleased with the number of cinemas that have joined this year as well. It involves 70 cinemas in over 50 cities, and there is a high probability that some cinemas will join later.

We hope that the audience will recognise the value of the project this year as well and treat themselves to a cinema experience of a classic film or a recent one that, most likely, they have never had the chance to see on the big screen, Maja Vukić added.

(Photo: Nina Đurđević)

The program selector Boško Picula created this year’s Month as a kind of tribute to festivals. As we celebrate 70 years of domestic film festivals this year – the first edition of the Pula Film Festival was held in 1954 – it was logical to pay tribute to these events with this program.

The program includes symbolic 70 films that have won the main festival awards from expert juries at festivals such as the Pula Film Festival, the World Festival of Animated Film Animafest, the ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival, the Zagreb Film Festival, the Motovun Film Festival, the Festival of Experimental Film and Video 25FPS, Croatian Film Days, and others.

The H-70 program is also a tribute to seven decades of systematic maintenance of film festivals in Croatia, as well as the first Croatian feature film awarded in Pula with the first prize – the classic H8 by Nikola Tanhofer, which triumphed at the fifth edition of the Pula Film Festival in 1958, anticipating the later globally popular disaster film genre in a masterful story about the fates of passengers on a bus facing a fatal traffic accident.

The selection of festival laureates spans from the 1950s to last year, and the authors are numerous names of Croatian film heritage and recent creativity.

Among them, the audience will see the following titles: “Vlak bez voznog reda” by Veljko Bulajić, “Licem u lice” by Branko Bauer, “Službeni položaj” by Fadil Hadžić, “Prometej s otoka Viševice” by Vatroslav Mimica, “Kontesa Dora” by Zvonimir Berković, “Puška za uspavljivanje” by Hrvoje Hribar, “Bogorodica” by Neven Hitrec, “Duga mračna noć” by Antun Vrdoljak, “Svjedoci” by Vinko Brešan, “Što je Iva snimila 21. listopada 2003.” by Tomislav Radić, “Tri ljubavne priče” by Snježana Tribuson, “Neka ostane među nama” by Rajko Grlić, “Pismo ćaći” by Damir Čučić, “Obrana i zaštita” by Bobo Jelčić, “Broj 55” by Kristijan Milić, “S one strane” by Zrinko Ogresta, “Dnevnik Diane Budisavljević” by Dana Budisavljević, “Tereza 37” by Danilo Šerbedžija, “Zbornica” by Sonja Tarokić, and “Veće od traume” by Vedrana Pribačić, a film that won the Grand Golden Arena in 2023.

Zbornica (HAVC)

The selection also includes the animated “Putnik drugog razreda” by Borivoj Dovniković Borde, “Dnevnik” by Nedeljko Dragić, “Satiemania” by Zdenko Gašparović, “Levijatan” by Simon Bogojević Narath, and “Biciklisti” by Veljko Popović, as well as documentary and experimental works, including “Plašitelj kormorana” by Branko Ištvančić, “Dečko kojem se žurilo” by Biljana Čakić Veselić, “Anine pjesme” by Vlatka Vorkapić, “Dobro jutro” by Ante Babaja, “Srbenka” by Nebojša Slijepčević, and “Jedna od nas” by Đuro Gavrana.

(Photo: Tereza37)

The program includes the selection of most films that have won the main awards at the mentioned festivals over the decades, taking into account their availability related to copyright and technical standards of film copies, with the desire to show the remaining titles at some future retrospective event, concluded Picula.

The head of publishing activities at the Croatian Film Association and film critic Diana Nenadić reflected on the value and importance of festivals for the development and education of the audience and the accessibility of independent film. History teaches us that domestic film festivals, namely their selectors and juries, especially when guided by non-film (even political) criteria, were sometimes blind to valuable films, leaving them for the reevaluation of future generations.

Since the time of the transitional “decinofication” that unfortunately still continues, this side effect of complementary audiovisual policies can be overlooked. Because festivals, appearing successively in all Croatian regions since the second half of the 1990s, played an important “enlightening” role, pointing out precisely those values that solely commercial cinema networks do not see or consciously silence. They taught us that films do not only come from the “first” or “second” world, that they are best and truly seen only on the “silver” screen, and that going to a cinema projection is an important social and communicative event where we are no longer just passive audiences. Croatian film has participated in this comforting vigor, “confidently,” and without fear of regional or global competition, gaining initial visibility. It remains for us to return it to the regular cinema repertoire, of course, after we, and festivals, create new cinema spaces for the audience of the new millennium, stated Diana Nenadić.

Vlak bez voznog reda (HAVC)

The Cinema Network currently counts 55 cinemas, 36 of which from 43 cities are included in this year’s Our Film Month. This project has great value as it provides a platform for the promotion and celebration of domestic film creativity. It also stimulates the audience’s interest in Croatian film, emphasising the diversity and quality of domestic cinematography and provides an opportunity for films to be screened across the country, said the president of the Cinema Network, Danijela Fabric Fabijanac.

Our Film Month can attract different segments of the audience, and this can result in the development of a dedicated audience that will regularly follow domestic production, which could ultimately increase cinema attendance. For the development of the audience, it is crucial to invest in promotion, as well as audience education, and to adjust the program to reflect the interests and needs of the local community. Collaboration with local schools, media, and cultural institutions is also important.

I hope that work on film literacy in local communities, which we are doing in cooperation with HAVC, will educate new individuals who will raise future generations to lovingly watch and appreciate domestic film, concluded Fabric Fabijanac.

The opening of Our Film Month will take place on Thursday, May 2nd simultaneously at 11 locations across Croatia: in Beli Manastir, Bjelovar, Blato on Korčula, Buzet, Drniš, Karlovac, Križevci, Nova Gradiška, Rijeka, Split, and Varaždin.

Although part of the program will take place in Zagreb, namely through the program in the CineStar and Cineplexx multiplexes and with a smaller scope at the Kino Metropolis (MSU), Dokukino KIC, and at temporary locations such as Kino Tuškanac (Tuškanac as a guest), the current problem of the lack of cinema halls for independent film reflects on this project as well.

Without cinemas, film art has no value because there is no way to meet the audience. This brings us to the current Achilles’ heel, and Zagreb as the capital city which has a significant problem with a deficit of cinema halls. Kino Tuškanac is under renovation, Kino Europa is also in a lengthy process of recovery; Zagreb, apart from the Kinoteka, Kino Metropolis in MSU, and Dokukino KIC, lacks an independent cinema that would screen cinephile titles and independent films. Cinemas have an extremely high importance in developing domestic film and culture in general, and we must actively work towards finding a solution to this problem as soon as possible, concluded HAVC director Chris Marcich.

The program as part of Our Film Month will take place in cinemas within the Cinema Network, independent cinemas, and multiplexes CineStar and Cineplexx throughout Croatia. Screenings within the Our Film Month project are held in (verify cities): Beli Manastir, Benkovac, Bjelovar, Bol, Buzet, Čakovec, Daruvar, Delnice, Drniš, Dubrovnik, Hvar, Imotski, Ivanec, Karlovac, Koprivnica, Korčula, Krapina, Krapinske toplice, Križevci, Krk, Kutina, Labin, Lovran, Ludbreg, Makarska, Marija Bistrica, Metković, Novalja, Novigrad/Cittanova, Nova Gradiška, Novi Marof, Novska, Osijek, Pazin, Pula, Rijeka, Rovinj, Samobor, Slatina, Slavonski Brod, Split, Supetar, Sveti Ivan Zelina, Šibenik, Trogir, Varaždin, Veli Lošinj, Vukovar, Zabok, Zadar, and Zagreb.

Tickets for Our Film Month are free or available at popular prices between 2 and 3 euros, depending on the cinemas. Detailed program information by cities is available on the official website www.havc.hr.