On Tuesday, August 13th, a press conference was held for this year’s 11th edition of Star Film Fest, which will be held from August 29th to 31st in the city of Sisak.
The conference was attended by the director of the festival, Matija Holjevac, the representative of the city of Sisak, Goran Grgurač, the representative of the general sponsor of the SFF, INA, Damir Butković, and the head of the media sector of the SFF, Klara Berdais.
31 SHORT FILM AS PART OF THE COMPETITION PROGRAM
Klara Berdais presented this year’s competition program, which consists of a total of 31 short films chosen by selectors Anja Kavić and Martina Mladenović from a total of 501 applications from all over the world. A total of 11 animated films, 5 documentaries, 4 experimental and 11 feature films will be shown, of which a total of 24 are student films, which is extremely important to us because the mission of Star Film Fest is to provide young authors with a springboard into the film world.
Also, in this year’s competition program, 4 debut films await us: the feature film ‘Silent’ by director Sara Horvatić, and the experimental ‘Inversion’ by director Matija Glavač, and the animated films by the group of directors ‘Paumo D’amour’ and ‘L’Animal Sauce Ail’.
This year’s jury consists of three members, film critic and curator Dina Pokrajac, actor Marko Kasalo and one of last year’s SFF winners, director Martina Marasović, who will award a total of 5 awards, namely the Award for the Best Industrial Film, the Award for the Best feature film, Award for the best documentary film, Award for the best experimental film and Award for the best animated film.
The Special Star Award – for the best film chosen by the selectors will be awarded by the selectors Anja Kavić and Martina Mladenović, while the cash prize as part of the Special Star Award – for the best student film will be awarded by a “small jury” called Stardusters, made up of high school students from the cities of Sisak and Petrinja. And the audience will award the Stardust award with their votes during 5 competitive screenings – for the best film as judged by the audience.
A PROGRAM FULLY DEDICATED TO THE SHORT FILM
The director of the festival, Matija Holjevac, presented the rest of the program of this year’s fest which will open on Thursday, August 29th, at the Vladimir Nazor Promenade with a musical performance by Duo Sanjam & Trio Bellisimo, followed by the official opening of the festival. The first day will be marked by the screening of Nebojsa Slijepčević‘s short film ‘The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent’, which won the Golden Palm in the short film category at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, followed by the first two competition screenings.
The second day, Friday, August 30th will begin with a program for the youngest with a screening of the film ‘Garfield’ in the City Museum of Sisak, and in the afternoon you will have the opportunity to talk with young directors whose films are shown as part of competitive screenings with Small Film Conversations on the Vladimir Nazor Promenade . The day continues at the same location with a jam session, and we end the film program on the second day with three competitive screenings.
The last day of the SFF, Saturday, August 31st begins at the Vladimir Nazor Promenade at 3:00 PM with a Masterclass on the topic of international cooperation on film projects. At 5:00 PM at the same location, a traditional film quiz organized by Kvizopija will be held, and the fest will close at 8:00 PM with the announcement of the winners and the final screening of the award-winning films.
Matija Holjevac also emphasized that this year’s program is entirely dedicated to film and film culture, and all the films of the festival are shown under a starry sky!
The representative of the city of Sisak, who is also the general patron of SFF, Goran Grgurač emphasized that everything in culture starts with a good idea and recalled the beginnings of Star Film Fest when the first program of SFF came to the agenda of the session of the Cultural Council 11 years ago. He emphasized that the city of Sisak supported the SFF then, supports it now and will support it in the future, because for the city of Sisak, in this story, the development of film culture among young people, many of whom have graduated from various film and drama academies during these 11 years, among other things, means the most thanks to Star Film Fest.
The representative of the general sponsor of SFF, INA, Damir Butković emphasized that this support has been going on for a whole decade and he congratulated and thanked the organizers who have been developing the culture of the city of Sisak all this time and for recognizing INA as a reliable partner and finally invited everyone to join us at this year’s edition.
In the end, the organizers thanked the general patron the city of Sisak and the general sponsor INA for their support, as well as other sponsors: the Croatian Audiovisual Center, Sisak-Moslavina County and the Ministry of Regional Development and European Union Funds.
THE MOST AUTHORS COME TO SISAK SO FAR
What is important to emphasize is that this year Star Film Fest hosts the most young authors, directors and film crews from all over the world, so far. About 40 of them, together with Star Film Fest and all visitors, will live a short film during the three days of the festival!
