Minority Croatian co-production, Goran Stolevski’s Housekeeping for Beginners, will be featured in the main competition programme. The film is a co-production with Croatian company Kinorama, with Ankica Jurić Tilić as co-producer. The film had its world premiere at the Venice IFF, returning home with the Queer Lion Award. It was recently announced that the film is also Macedonia’s contender for an Oscar nomination. Housekeeping for Beginners is a co-production between North Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Poland and Kosovo. The main competition programme will include seven titles competing for the Grand Prix, the Special Jury Prize and the Critics’ Prize, while one of the jury members deciding on the main festival award is Croatian director Andrija Mardešić (The Uncle).

Ten more Croatian feature films will appear in other festival sections. One of these is Lukas Nola’s Escort (Kinorama), which will have its international premiere in the Cinescope section, dedicated to the most compelling films from Central and Eastern Europe. Escort had its world premiere at the Pula Film Festival, where it won the Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor (Krešimir Mikić) and the Golden Arena for Best Production Design (Ivan Veljača).

Seventh Heaven, the debut feature of director and screenwriter Jasna Nanut, will have its international premiere in Luxembourg, in the FunnyEast section. The film was produced by company 15th Art Productions with producer Hrvoje Osvadić, who also co-penned the script. The film will be featured during the “Croatian evening” of the programme.

The previously mentioned Cinescope section will showcase the feature Only When I Laugh directed by Vanja Juranić, who authored the script together with Elma Tataragić, and the film’s producer is Damir Terešak (Maxima Film). So far, the film has appeared at the Pula Film Festival, receiving the award of the Croatian Independent Cinemas Network, followed by the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Other feature-length titles include minority co-productions: Petra Seliškar’s Slovenian-Croatian-Macedonian documentary The Body (with Tamara Babun of Wolfgang & Dolly as the Croatian co-producer) and Vlad Petri’s documentary Between Revolutions, realised as a co-production between Romania, Croatia, Iran and Qatar (Croatian co-producer is Oliver Sertić for Restart), which won the FIPRESCI Award for best film in the FORUM section at this year’s Berlinale. There are also two features co-produced by Kinorama – Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Romania’s contender for the Academy Award, and Vladimir Perišić’s Lost Country. The audience in Luxembourg will also have the opportunity to watch the debut feature-length Excursion, arriving from the award-winning director and screenwriter Una Gunjak, co-produced by Croatian company Nukleus film (co-producer Siniša Juričić). The film had its world premiere in August, at the Locarno International Film Festival, where it won a Special Mention in the International Competition programme – Concorso Cineasti del presente. Excursion is also B&H contender for the Academy Award.

Zornitsa Sophia’s Mother, a Bulgarian feature realised in co-production with Croatia (Irena Marković for Focus Media) and Marko Šantić’s Wake Me, created in co-production with Croatian company Jaka produkcija (co-producer is Jure Bušić), will also screen at the festival.

The Cineshorts section will present various shorts – animated shorts Eeva created by duo Lucija Mrzljak and Morten Tšinakov (Adriatic Animation), Remember How I Used to Ride a White Horse directed by duo Ivana Bošnjak Volda and Thomas Johnson Volda (Creative Syndicate) and Martina Meštrović’s Her Dress for the Final (Creative Syndicate), as well as documentary short Babajanja directed by Ante Zlatko Stolica (Restart) and director Nebojša Slijepčević’s fiction short My Neighbour Wolf.

The Central and Eastern European Film Festival – CinEast takes place 5th – 22nd October in Luxembourg. Festival audiences will get to enjoy close to 60 features and 40 shorts. More information about CinEast is available on the festival’s official website.