The experimental short film competition will screen Marko Tadić’s Events Meant to Be Forgotten, a visual expression shot on 16mm tape, based on archival materials and a poem by Hans Magnus Enzensberger.

Tadić’s film premiered at last year’s 25 FPS festival in Zagreb and has since toured countless festivals at home and abroad, including the recently concluded São Paulo International Short Film Festival. The film is a Kreativni sindikat (Igor Grubić) and Zagreb Film (Vinko Brešan) production, created with the support of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

The VR works competition will feature Veljko and Milivoj Popović’s Dislocation, created using 3D and 2D animation and motion capture technology, in collaboration with dancer Alen Čelić and choreographer Nikolina Dolfić. The VR project had its world premiere at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, going on to screen in competition at Annecy and recently winning the award for best VR film at domestic Betina Film Festival. 

Dislocation was created at Croatian studio Prime Render, in co-production with French house Bagan Films, with Veljko Popović and Milivoj Popović as producers and co-producers Patrick Hernandez and Veronique Siegel. The creation of the project received support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and the City of Split.

In addition, two Croatian titles are screening in the Midnight Madness programme reserved for works celebrating sexual diversity. These are Kata Gugić’s Cockpera and Irena Jukić Pranjić’s Real Boy. At GIFF, Cockpera continues its rich festival life that began in 2020 with screenings at Clermont-Ferrand, Ottawa, Hiroshima, Zagreb and elsewhere. This year it has appeared at the Tallinn Black Nights, Nijmegen, Go Short Festival, Palm Springs ShortFest and many others. The film’s producer is Tomislav Buntak (Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb), with Vinko Brešan of Zagreb Film as co-producer.

Real Boy has just finished screening at Croatian Film Days and the Linoleum festival in Kiev, after having its world premiere earlier this year at Animafest Zagreb. It is produced by Matija Pisačić (of artistic organisation Anima), having received financial support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

The Guanajuato International Film Festival is one of the most important festivals in Latin America for young filmmakers, while its short fiction, short documentary and short animated competition winners directly qualify for Oscar nominations.

This year’s edition is organized at various festival locations, 17th – 26th September, while a portion of the main programme will also be available online, via the GIFF official website.