Jadran Boban’s The Feast of the Wolf will have its French premiere in Montpellier. The title had its world premiere at the prestigious Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, going on to screen at the Cottbus Film Festival. Domestic audiences had the opportunity to see it at ZagrebDox and the Liburnia Film Festival, as well as in regular theatrical distribution.

Dragan Grozdanić penned the screenplay, while the film’s producer is Dana Budisavljević (Hulahop). The executive producer is Noa Nikolić, with Milanka Gvoić and Nikola Spasić (Rezon) serving as Serbian co-producers.

Development of the project was previously supported at numerous international workshops and platforms – ExOriente Film Workshop, Dok Leipzig / Dok Preview Training, Doclisboa Nebulae, Astra Film Lab, and the Films in Progress programme of the Pula Film Festival. The film was financially supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), the Film Center Serbia, the MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe, and the City of Zagreb.

Also screening in the feature documentary competition at this year’s Cinemed is To Hold a Mountain, directed by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić. The film won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, after which it screened at festivals around the world, and has been shortlisted for a European Film Award nomination. The Croatian co-producer is Dijana Cetina Mlađenović (Kinematograf).

The sidebar programme curated by ARTE, the ARTE Carte Blanche short film programme, will feature the short Nobody Said Anything, directed and written by Tamara Todorović, created as a minority Croatian co-production by the company Dinaridi Film. The co-producers are Lucija Perić, Tena Gojić, and Miljenka Čogelja. The film had its world premiere in the official competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, after which it won the Heart of Sarajevo at the Sarajevo Film Festival; Croatian audiences will be able to see it at the upcoming Zagreb Film Festival.

The Short Film Panorama will present Jozo Schmuch’s Shallow Ground, which has garnered awards at the Zagreb Film Festival and the Pula Film Festival. The film’s producer is Ana Martinović, and it was made as an Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb production.

Screening in the same programme is the minority co-production Birthmark, directed by George Barbari. Earlier this year, the film won the Best Queer Short Film Award at Clermont-Ferrand. Birthmark was created as a co-production of Lebanon, France, and Croatia. The Croatian co-production companies are Vertigo (Vanja Vascarac) and Robot 22 (Stjepan Hundić).

Montpellier International Mediterranean Film Festival (Festival international du cinéma Méditerranéen de Montpellier) – Cinemed – was founded in 1979, with the aim of promoting the art of cinema from countries of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea region, Portugal, and Armenia. In the spirit of tolerance, the festival facilitates the exchange of knowledge, symposia, and the study of the shared characteristics that connect these filmmaking traditions.

Cinemed features over 200 films of various genres and formats, and alongside its film programme offers a diverse range of accompanying events. More information about the festival, which runs from 16 to 24 October, may be found here.