On Tuesday, August 16, an official press conference was held on the occasion of the ninth edition of Star Film Fest, which will be held in Sisak from September 1 to 3, 2022. We are almost ten years old, and we will celebrate the ninth edition in a new splendor at new locations in the city of Sisak, all with the aim of bringing the art of film, while spreading creativity, openness and critical thinking, closer to and presenting it to the widest possible audience.
Festival director Matija Holjevac, representative of the city of Sisak Marko Krička, representative of INA Damir Butković, Star Film Fest producer Laura Prpić and head of the media sector Klara Berdais spoke about the upcoming edition at the press conference.
At the conference, we officially presented the program of this year’s star festival, as part of which visitors can expect diverse screenings of the competition program, screenings of feature films, an exhibition, presentation of film literature, workshops and a music program, and the director of the festival, Matija Holjevac, also emphasized the new ambient locations that this year to occupy the SFF, namely the Slava Striegl promenade, the Sisak Creative Industry Center and the Dutch House, which, after the city of Sisak lost its cinemas during the earthquake in 2020, brings film art into the city center.
The representative of the city of Sisak, Marko Krička, stated at the conference that SFF is “the side of the coin that makes him love his job.” He recalled his visit to the first edition of Star Film Fest and emphasized that SFF never ceases to surprise him year after year. Damir Butković, representative of INA, the general sponsor of SFF, which has been supporting this film star story for seven years, also addressed the media, and at the same time, he congratulated the organizers on eight consecutive years of work.
Competitive program
This year, we received a total of 3,465 submitted films from all over the world, which gives us great pride and happiness that the voice of Star Film Fest is recognized outside the borders of Croatia. As part of the competition program, 33 films will be shown in the categories of animated, documentary, feature and experimental films.
From animated films, we will watch Spoon (Arthur Chays; France, 2022), The great survival (Louis Besse; France, 2022), Nowhere (Asaki Nishino; Japan, 2022), The masked avenger (Luna Strmotić; Croatia, 2021), A heatwave (Salma Hamdy Ghonim; Egypt, 2021), Ant hotel (Yu-Hsuan Teng; Taiwan, 2022), Katarza (Noa Pisačić; Croatia, 2022), Good night (Jung-seo Lee, Seo-bin Lee, Ji-yeon Yoon; South Korea, 2022), Overcast (Yu-Xuan Tian; Taiwan, 2021).
Documentary films entered the competition program: Life in tight shoes (Yelda Tekin; Turkey, 2021), Bite of paradise (Magda Mas; Croatia, 2022), The dream (Tamara Broćić; Serbia, 2020), Fronta (Dina Uglešić; Croatia , 2021), and from the experimental ones we are watching 6 meters (Vedran Ružić; Croatia, 2022), After so long (Varsha Panikar; USA,; 2022), Killer dog (Alexander Lemus; Spain, 2022), All we do is worry (Nikola Kašić; Croatia, 2022), The wounds of my house (Claudia Estrada Tarascó; Spain, 2021). And feature films that will also rule the projection screen: Delovi tela (Svetislav Dragomirović; Serbia, 2021), Feral (Bojana Babić; Serbia, 2020), Codfish (Daria Stilin; Croatia, 2020), Not today (Hakan Serttas; Turkey, 2022) ), Krotki (Jovan Dimoski; Serbia, 2022), The to-do list (Jon Ander Serrano Avendano; Spain, 2022), Bottom of the Bottom (Matej Matijević; Croatia, 2021), The Verdict (Dora Jung; Serbia, 2021), Xin YE (Yifei Ge; China, 2022), Serious and lively (Song Jie Chin; China, 2022), The House Has Horns (Stefan Tomić; BiH, 2021), Gunz and Helmets (Marko Marjanović Marinčić; Serbia, 2021), Snowflake (Shimin Peng; China, 2021), Deep Ocean (拓高, Taiwan; 2022) and If you swallow a star (Yeseo Han; South Korea, 2022).
OFF program
The content of this year’s program is enriched by the screenings of two feature-length films – Factory to the workers by Srđan Kovačević, which will be shown on Thursday, September 1st at 9:15 p.m., and Savages by Dario Lonjak on September 2nd at 8:30 p.m. on the Slava Striegl promenade. The accompanying program is adapted to all ages, so on Friday, September 2nd, screenings of the cult animated series Professor Baltazar will be held in the premises of the Sisak Creative Industry Center, after which the Zagreb studio Gamechuck will present a video game project based on this cult series.
Bacači sjenki platform, on September 2nd at 7 p.m. in the premises of the Dutch house, will hold a creative evening Local and famous stories, a conversation with artists who have turned their obstacles into strengths and their flaws into virtues, in which Lana Barić and Goran Dević will participate, and we will end film Friday with the rhythms of Sisak’s band Šarena pojava at the same location.
For those eager for new knowledge, the workshop Campaign on social networks will be held in the premises of the Creative Industry Center from September 2nd to 3rd, and at the same time, on September 3 at 4 p.m., we will present film literature – the books Film in School by Ana Đordić and Small Film Talks by Duško Popović.
On the last day of the festival, in cooperation with Kvizopija in the area of the Dutch House at 5 p.m., we test our and yours film knowledge with a film quiz, and after the announcement of the award winners and the screening of the awarded films at 8 p.m. and 15 minutes on the Slava Striegl promenade, we move to the outdoor area of the Dutch House where with the performance of the Zagreb band Munchmen and the dance rhythms of DJs Luka & Mirsa, we officially close the ninth edition of SFF.
We are satisfied, extremely proud and grateful for the large response of interested filmmakers who want their films to be part of our festival, and we hope that you will enjoy the films and everything we have prepared with us from September 1st to 3rd , and from activities that precede the festival, we invite all film lovers to the traditional overture to Star Film Fest – Star Gardens, which will be held on Friday, August 19th at 9 p.m. in the courtyard of the Sisak City Museum and on August 26th in the courtyard of the Margić family.
You can watch the entire press conference on the official Facebook page of Star Film Fest, and for any additional information you can contact us at info@sfilmfest.com.
