With over 100 films in its Main Program and Sidebar sections, the 14th Zagreb Film Festival opened its gates on Saturday, November 12th in an atmosphere of celebration at Europa Cinema in the Croatian capital. Until the 20th of November, the festival will take place at six locations, at Europa and Tuškanac cinemas, Museum of Contemporary Art, Docucinema KIC, F22 – New Academic Scene and Goethe Institute. In terms of theme and genre, it is the most diverse festival edition thus far, with comedies, dramas and the largest ever number of thrillers in competition.

The main competition this year includes a record-breaking number of Croatian titles – of 13 films competing for the Golden Pram, four of them are Croatian productions. Aside from Quit Staring at My Plate by Hana Jusic, Trampoline by Katarina Zrinka Matijević, House of Others by Rusudan Glurjidze, there is the directorial debut of the famous actor Rade Šerbedžija, co-directed by his son Danilo Šerbedžija – Liberation of Skopje, this year’s FYROM Oscar candidate for the best foreign language film category. Other Balkan films that will screen in the main competition for Feature Films are Dogs by Bogdan Mirica and the Serbian production Name: Dobrica, Last Name: Unknown by Srda Penezic (Serbia, 2016, 98min).

In the Short Films competition, the audience will have the chance to watch, amongst others, the films Ferdinand 13 by Cecilia Stefanescu (Romania, 2016, 20min) and I Remember by Elma Tataragic (Bosnia Herzegovina, 2016, 15min).

The national competition program of short films, Checkers, primarily promotes young and aspiring authors who have not made their feature-length films yet. The program dates back to the festival’s beginnings and it includes premieres of short films by Croatian filmmakers who have achieved acclaim in the meantime. This is why Checkers is considered as one of the most important platforms for the promotion of young Croatian talents. 

In the Plus section, a category in which 11 high schoolers serve as selection committee choosing 5 films to compete for 500 euro, we find the Bulgarian film Losers by Ivaylo Hristov, while together again, a program that presents new films by renowned authors whose first or second features have already been screened in the main program of previous festival editions, includes the Balkan films Goran by Nevio Marasovic (Croatia, 2016, 86min), King of the Belgians by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth and Sieranevada by Cristi Puiu. The films will compete for the Golden Bicycle Award.