Croatian Films in the Competition at the Upcoming ZFF

• World premiere at the competition program of the 24th Zagreb Film Festival of “Mom’s Alive Today” by Josip Lukić, while “Petty Thieves” by Mate Ugrin will also compete for the Golden Pram

• “Small Things” by Zvonimir Jurić is competing for the Golden Bicycle

We are just two months away from the key autumn film adventure – the 24th edition of Zagreb Film Festival! From November 9 to 15, Zagreb film buffs can look forward to around a hundred film titles, some of which will compete for festival awards: the Golden Pram and the Golden Bicycle. In this year’s main competition program for feature fiction films, there will be as many as two Croatian films, one of which will have its world premiere right at ZFF, while the Together Again program, composed of new works by authors well known to the ZFF audience from the global film scene, will also include one local title.

The feature-length debut by Josip Lukić, a former laureate of ZFF’s Checkers program (It’s Not Cold for Mosquitoes – ZFF 2022, Golden Pram; Summer Fruits – ZFF 2019, Special Mention), will premiere right at the upcoming ZFF. Mom’s Alive Today is an intimate, authentic family drama about love, guilt, helplessness, and the burden of caring for loved ones. The cast includes veterans such as Ksenija Marinković, Snježana Sinovčić, Tihana Lazović, Marija Škaričić, Nikša Butijer, and others.

“We are happy to present the film for the first time at ZFF, a place where the film careers of many key crew members – producer Tena Gojić, editor Borna Buljević, assistant directors Rino Barbir and Marko Jukić, script supervisor Lea Mileta, and myself – began in the iconic Checkers program; thank you, Boris, Lana, Selma, and the festival team for this opportunity. Although the film is Split-based in its core, everything related to my filmmaking journey happened in Zagreb, so a world premiere in the Croatian capital makes the most sense,” emphasizes the director, who also plays the lead male role in the film.

Five years ago in the Checkers program, the short film Everything Ahead (2021) by director Mate Ugrin was honoured with a Special Mention. This year, like Lukić, Ugrin will compete for the festival’s main award, the Golden Pram, with his feature-length debut. Set in Istria, Petty Thieves is an atmospheric film about the other, darker side of tourism. Following its world premiere earlier this summer in the competition program of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Award, the film was also screened at the Pula Film Festival.

“I am particularly pleased that Petty Thieves will be screened at the Zagreb Film Festival. I look forward to its journey continuing before a local audience and to having the opportunity to meet viewers in Zagreb to discuss the film,” says the director.

After competing for the Golden Arena in Pula and subsequently the Heart of Sarajevo, the family drama Small Things, directed by Zvonimir Jurić (The Blacks – ZFF 2009, White – ZFF 2013), will compete at ZFF for the Golden Bicycle, awarded to the best film in the Together Again program. Based on the motifs from a short story by Jurica Pavičić, a frequent screenwriting collaborator of Jurić’s, the film portrays a Dalmatian family forced to face long-suppressed issues over a decision to sell island property. The lead roles are played by Marija Škaričić, Izudin Bajrović, Ivana Roščić, and Juraj Lerotić, director of the film Safe Place, which received a Special Mention at ZFF four years ago.

Follow all news about the upcoming ZFF on the official website, Facebook, and Instagram. The Zagreb Film Festival is held with the support of the City Office for Culture and Civil Society, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Creative Europe – MEDIA Sub-programme, the Kultura Nova foundation, and the Zagreb Tourist Board.