The last day of the SFF, Saturday, August 31st, begins at the Promenade of Vladimir Nazor at 15:00 with a Masterclass on the topic of international cooperation on film projects. The masterclass will feature the director and creative and executive producer of the film ‘1 Million Followers’, Marius D’Gasco and producer, actor and location manager Matt Easton best known for his work on films such as ‘Amp House Massacre’, ‘Malibu Horror Story’, ‘Khloe Kane: The Listing’ and ‘Archenemy’.
The Masteclass will also be attended by Croatian producer Anita Juka, who started her own production company 4Film in 2003 after graduating in law at the University of Zagreb. In her successful 20-year career, she produced over 30 feature films, 20 European co-productions of various genres and numerous advertising campaigns for commercial clients. Notable credits include the production of ‘The River Wild 2’ (2023), a feature film directed by Ben Ketai, produced by Universal Studio, starring Leighton Meester and Adam Brody. The film is currently available on Netflix and VOD. She co-produced the feature film ‘Infinity Pool’, directed by Brandon Cronenberg, starring Alexander Skarsgard, Mia Goth and Cleopatra Coleman. The film was supported by Eurimages and distributed by NEON/TOPIC, Universal Studios and Focus Features. ‘Infinity Pool’ celebrated its international premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and its European premiere at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival. In 2024, the film was nominated in 11 categories including Best Picture and Best Director by the Canadian Academy of Cinematography at Television for the Canadian Screen Awards. In 2022, her two feature films ‘Burning Day’ directed by Emin Alper and ‘Butterfly Vision’ directed by Maksym Nakonechnyi premiered at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2022 in the Un Certain Regard section. Both films received international recognition and were screened at more than 100 different festivals around the world and were awarded numerous awards. One of her most successful films is ‘Ti mene nosiš’ directed by Ivona Juka. This powerful drama had its international premiere at the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, was invited to more than 20 film festivals around the world and was awarded 17 international awards. ‘Ti mene nosiš’ competed for the title of the best European film in 2015, and was also an official candidate for the 88th Academy Awards® for the best foreign film. In 2016, ‘Ti mene nosiš’ became the first film, not only from Croatia, but also from the entire region, to be bought by the giant VOD service – Netflix, and currently 192 million people can watch it. Anita Juka is the first Croatian elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the European Film Academy (EFA) from 2021 to 2022. She is a member of EFA, the European Producers Club and the Producers Guild of America.
The conversation will be moderated by a young producer, Laura Prpić.
At 17:00 at the same location, a traditional film quiz organized by Kvizopija will be held, and the fest will close at 20:00 with the announcement of the winners and the final screening of the award-winning films. Tonight, this year’s jury, which consists of film critic and curator Dina Pokrajac, actor Marko Kasalo and one of last year’s SFF winners, director Martina Marasović, 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, awarded by the selectors Anja Kavić and Martina Mladenović, will also be awarded, 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 in the city Sisak and Petrinje, and the audience will award the Stardust award with their votes during 5 competitive screenings – for the best film as judged by the audience.
The program is free.
