Motovun Film Festival will have its 18th edition this year, to be held
25-29 July. Presenting films of small-scale cinematographies and independent productions, this year the festival΄s audience can also count on some surprises, such as this year΄s focus on French cinema and culture or the famous Danish cinematic movement Dogme 95. Some 120 films are programmed to be screened in 120 hours of the festival, winners at Cannes, Venice, Tribeca and San Sebastian Film Festivals.
Father by Visar Morina
Festival director
Igor Mirković, said that “On our excellent side programs, you can count on a great line-up of French films as part of
Rendez-vous – The Festival of France in Croatia. With the Danish program
Twenty Years of Dogme 95 we will revisit the cinematic movement that left a strong mark in the early years of our festival. We have also prepared the
God, Help Us program – a series of documentaries on extremisms in all religions. And for the first time ever, TV series will find their way to the festival big screens, being the most vital aspect of film industry in the past years”.
Five Balkan films and co-productions are competing for the Propeller Award and the FIPRESCI prize at this year΄s Main Programme:
Beside the films mentioned above, Main Programme will screen, among others, the latest films of internationally acclaimed filmmakers, such as Andrei Konchalovsky (The Postman΄s White Nights - Silver Lion at Venice 2014), Carlos Vermut (Magical Girl - San Sebastian 2014 Golden Shell winner) and Dagur Kari (Virgin Mountain).
The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos
Festival programmer Milena Zajović commented on the selected films: “Once again we are happy to have a wide variety of films in our main program – ranging from those with sound references to some little surprises that, we hope, could soon turn into big ones […] An opportunity to show to our audiences a still unknown film we believe they will love is what makes us particularly glad.
Partner Country, the Motovun΄s most popular side program will be focusing on French Cinema. Part of Rendez-vous – Festival of France in Croatia, the programme will present a wide variety of French films, including Bruno Dumont΄s P΄tit Quinquin, Breathe by Melanie Laurent and Jacky in the Kingdom Of Women by Riad Sattouf . The main retrospective program called The Brutal French features a selection of films by the authors considered members of what was called the "new French extremism" at the turn of the century, with early works of Leos Carax, François Ozon and Claire Denis.
The Twenty Years of Dogme 95 and the God, Help Us sidebar prgrammes complete this year΄s coming of age for the Croatian festival. President of the Council Of Advisors, Mike Downey said that he finds amazing that “we are still going after 18 years – and after 18 years I’d like to say that we have come of age, but it really isn’t that kind of festival […] The 2015 selection remains vibrant, challenging, intelligent, irreverent and with the usual sense of humour that has become the festival’s trademark, and which has allowed me over the years to bring such eminent cinema luminaries as Stephen Daldry, Paul Thomas Anderson, Pawel Pawlikowski, Jeremy Thomas and suchlike to the Motovun movie mountain.”
