The Shortest Day of the Year 21 December – The Second Short Film Marathon 2014
This year, for the second time, the Short Film Marathon takes place in Croatia, as an event paying homage to short film on 21 December, the shortest day of the year. The programmes take place in 29 cinemas across Croatia and two locations in Zagreb (ArtOmat and Advent on the European square), and some of the films will be made available on HAVC’s website.
A total of 66 films will be shown, including a large number of recent Croatian films garnering awards at important local and international festivals. Admission to all the screenings and events is free of charge.
The second Short Film Marathon this year lasts for three days. In addition to Sunday, 21 December, the cinema screenings are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, 19 and 20 December.
This year’s cinema marathon features two children’s film programmes, and three programmes for grown-ups, including all genres – from animated to experimental. The youngest audiences are welcome to attend Balthazar: The Star Quartet Series by the legendary Zagreb School of Animation, and European short films from Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Ireland and Spain, intended for children between 3 and 6 years of age, to the choice of the Short Circuit organisation. This programme also includes the Croatian animated film Hidden Talent by Miran Miošić, about a singing cat Bjelobrk who is tone deaf but this does not stop him from constantly singing horribly.
The programmes for grown-ups feature recent European and Croatian short titles. Therefore, the audience has a unique chance to see one of the Croatian films that won most awards this year, Una Gunjak's The Chicken, on the big screen, as well as Boris Poljak’s Autofocus, the winner of Karlovy Vary festival. Why the past few years of Croatian short film can rightfully be called stellar, the audience will be able to discover through several titles like President Nixon’s Present by Igor Šeregi, Prettyboy by Saša Ban, The Box by Nebojša Slijepčević, The Little Raccoon by Barbara Vekarić, the animated films Koyaa 'Flower' by Kolja Saksida and Bla by Martina Meštrović, which could be seen by Zagreb's citizens and visitors last year on the facade of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
There is also a selection of European fiction and experimental films from Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France, also as a result of collaboration with Short Circuit.
The screening schedule at 29 Croatian cinemas can be found attached or on the Croatian Audiovisual Centre’s website.
Next to cinemas, the Short Film Marathon this year takes place at two locations in Zagreb (ArtOmat and Advent on the European square) and on Croatian Audiovisual Centre’s website www.havc.hr. In these 48 hours, 16 films of different genres will be available – from experimental and documentary, to fiction and animated. The films are available online from midnight 20 December to midnight on Sunday 21 December. Also, Croatian Television’s Channel Three will also join the short film celebration and in different slots on Sunday broadcast short films starring the legendary Charlie Chaplin, and the Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle duo, as well as short films by the masters of French cinema like Alain Resnais and Jean-Luc Godard.
The Shortest Day initiative (Le jour plus court) was launched in 2012 by the French National Centre for Cinema (Centre national du cinema et de l’image animée) in association with the Short Film Agency (l’Agence du court métrage) with the idea of a day-long promotion of the rich short film repertory in the entire country. After a great success in France, the initiative went international and now includes 14 European countries. The second Short Film Marathon is organised by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.