Who’s Coming to ZFF?

The festival will host a number of international and domestic filmmakers, including Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson, Norwegian actress Lisa Loven Kongsli, and double ZFF laureate Daniel Soares

The upcoming 24th edition of the Zagreb Film Festival, running from 9 to 15 November, will host numerous international and domestic filmmakers who will present their new works to the audience, while some will share their experiences, knowledge, and reflections on various aspects of filmmaking with Zagreb audiences. Among the latter is celebrated Austrian director Ulrich Seidl, whose blend of documentary and fiction styles in award-winning film studies of contemporary societal pathologies has influenced masters such as Werner Herzog. In his masterclass titled The Camera Doesn’t Look Away, organized in cooperation with the Maison du Cinéma programme and the Austrian Cultural Forum, he will discuss his distinctive auteur approach. Continuing the collaboration between ZFF and the Croatian Film Editors Society, Danish editor Olivia Neergaard-Holm, whose credits include Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut The Chronology of Water, will visit Zagreb. In her masterclass, she will touch upon her long-standing collaboration with Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi, as well as the role of editing in building atmosphere, tension, and character psychology. Norwegian actress Lisa Loven Kongsli will discuss her experience working on small independent productions (including Solomamma, screened at last year’s ZFF), collaborating with renowned European directing names (such as Ruben Östlund on the hit film Force Majeure and Cristian Mungiu on Fjord, which will be screened out of competition at this year’s ZFF), as well as Hollywood blockbusters such as Wonder Woman and Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

As a member of the feature film competition jury, Loven Kongsli will decide on the winner of ZFF’s Golden Pram, alongside Belgrade director Bojan Vuletić and Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson, a frequent ZFF guest. The festival stage will also welcome the film crews of numerous feature titles from the main competition, including the team behind the domestic film Mom’s Alive Today, which will have its world premiere at ZFF: director Josip Lukić, producer Tena Gojić, actress Ksenija Marinković, co-producer Dragana Jovović, and executive producer Ivan Glebov. Arriving at ZFF with awards from Karlovy Vary and Pula is another Croatian title Petty Thieves, which will be presented by director Mate Ugrin alongside producers Daria Blažević, Lucija Buljeta Magdić and Nina Velnić, and actress Tea Ljubešić. Zagreb audiences will also have the opportunity to meet Swedish-Danish filmmaker Maria Bäck, director of the witty Brave New Love, which humorously examines the norms and structures of heterosexual relationships. Approaching the theme of aging in an entirely fresh way, Queen at Sea by American director Lance Hammer will be presented by actress Anna Calder-Marshall, who, alongside Tom Courtenay, was awarded the Berlin Silver Bear for Best Supporting Actress.

A witty, sharp piece of autofiction about a queer immigrant couple in Berlin, I Plant My Hand in the Garden, will be presented by half of its creative tandem – Serbian director Boris Hadžija, who also stars in the lead role alongside co-director Hoda Taheri. Until the Day Ends, an atmospheric work about a love born amid turbulent student protests in Belgrade, will be screened on the ZFF screen in the presence of director Jelena Maksimović, producer Jelena Angelovska, actors Lena Trifunović and Andrija Krivokapić, and editor Jan Klemsche. The screening of the harrowing Macedonian feature 17, inspired by a real-life event that shook the region, will be attended by director Kosara Mitić, who won the Golden Mimosa for Best Direction for her feature debut in Herceg Novi this summer. The latter two titles are also part of the PLUS competition program, which also features Skateboarding Is Not for Girls, competing for the young jury award. This Macedonian production about a bold new generation of girls determined to shed the burden of patriarchal tradition was co-produced with Croatia. Alongside director Dima Duma, the Zagreb audience will also be greeted by co-producer Vanja Sremac (Terminal 3) and the composing duo Jura Ferina and Pavao Miholjević.

Stepping in front of the ZFF screen will also be members of the film crews of numerous works competing for the Golden Pram in the national and international short film competition programmes, including former ZFF laureate and Portuguese director Daniel Soares (A Few Things Happening by a River), Palestinian-Dutch director Sabrine Khoury (A Tenderness), and Norwegian author Håkon Anton Olavsen (Let’s (Not) Talk About the Snake). A number of filmmakers from the region will also present their short films: Italian director Sara Scalera (Puca), Slovenian director Dan Grabnar (Neighbour) and Serbian director Tamara Todorović (Nobody Said Anything), as well as Slovenian director Nika Jurman and actress Lea Cverle (Little House). The winner of the short film competitions will be decided by a jury comprising last year’s Checkers winner Jozo Schmuch, Go Short Film Festival artistic director Mathieu Janssen, and Cyprus International Short Film Festival (ISCFFC) artistic director Diomedes Koufteros.

Slovenian director Jan Cvitkovič will return to ZFF as part of the program of the same name on the occasion of the screening of his comedy Hotel Alcohol, and will be joined on the festival stage by producer Slađana Vide, director of photography Jure Černec, and actress Irena Kovačević. Director-producer tandem Marko Škop and Marina Andree Škop will present their psychological drama For Love at ZFF, while Small Things will be presented by director Zvonimir Jurić, producer Ankica Jurić Tilić, co-screenwriter Jurica Pavičić, producer Dragan Jurić, actresses Marija Škaričić and Ivana Roščić, and director of photography Marko Brdar. Guests of the Network of Festivals of the Adriatic Region programme will include Muriel D’Ansembourg, director of the Dutch work Truly Naked, Bulgarian producer Katya Trichkova behind the film Made in EU, and Bulgarian actress Tanya Shahova, who plays the lead role in Black Money for White Nights. Following the recent presentation of the Adriatic Film Award, conferred by the members of the Adriatic Region Film and TV Academy established last year, two awarded films will be screened at the upcoming ZFF as part of the special screening block Adriatic Film Award: Awarded Films. These are touching, reflective works about aging, loss, and lasting relationships – Vladimir Tagić’s Yugo Florida and last year’s ZFF winner, Wind, Talk to Me by Stefan Đorđević.

 As part of the Industry programme, Martina Petrović, Head of Creative Europe Desk – MEDIA Office Croatia, will present updates on audiovisual project development calls, while the panel From Local to Global: Actors on the International Market will feature actress Katarina Madirazza and casting directors Anila Gajević and Anja Dihrberg-Siebler. Alongside casting director Nicole Schmied, they will also lead the workshop Audition as Networking. Irish audience development strategy consultant Síle Culley will lead the Audience Desing workshop, organized by ZFF in cooperation with Creative Europe Desk – MEDIA Office Croatia and the International Screen Institute. The distinction between censorship and boycotts will be discussed on the panel Boycott in the Film Industry, organized in cooperation with the Nepokorena Palestina initiative, featuring Ronnie Barkan, co-founder of the First Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress and the Boycott from Within initiative, director Jelena Maksimović, and journalist and dramaturge Diana Meheik. In partnership with the Croatian Film Directors and Producers Guild, the My First Script workshop will return, guiding future debutants under the mentorship of director Antonio Nuić and script consultant Jelena Paljan as they develop their feature debut screenplays: Vedran Husremović (CRO), Matija Jovanović (ME), Ramazan Kılıç (TR), Isabella Margara (GR), Katarina Zrinka Šarić (CRO), and Boryana Yovcheva and Milko Yovchev (BG). The Meet&Match programme will bring together members of the film community for a public script reading, while the third consecutive Midpoint Intensive Croatia, an intensive four-day creative short fiction script development workshop, will be held in partnership with the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and MIDPOINT Institute.

As part of the Industry Youth! Programme, fourteen students from seven regional academies are preparing pitches for their projects to be presented at a public pitching forum. Meanwhile, at the trailer editing workshop led by Vladimir Gojun and Tomislav Pavlic, organized in cooperation with the Croatian Film Editors Society, the Croatian Film Directors and Producers Guild, and the Academy of Dramatic Art, young editors will focus on crafting film trailers. Producers are targeted by the year-long professional development and networking programme CineLink Producers’ Lab, one of whose three total modules takes place at ZFF. Thanks to cooperation with the Pula Film Festival, ZFF will host the second edition of the Authors’ Room workshop: under the mentorship of directors and screenwriters Goran Stanković and Vladimir Tagić, teams consisting of screenwriters, directors, and producers will develop creative work using the writers’ room principle. Dedicated to the pressing theme of sustainability are the workshops Sustainability on Set, Green Practices: From Plan to Action, and Sustainable Strategies: Green Approach to EU Funds. As part of the Network of Festivals of the Adriatic Region, the 54+ Workshop for Cinephiles will take place, while the Cinephiles programme will bring together young art-house film enthusiasts from Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Additionally, at the creative children’s workshop My First Digital Picture Book, children aged 7 to 12 will have the opportunity to create their own digital stories using the Scratch tool.

The 24th Zagreb Film Festival will take place from 9 to 15 November 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.