Vimeo bestows its Staff Picks distinction on exceptional films, honouring the authors from around the world who use the platform. Vimeo staff, who choose the films included in the Staff Picks section, annually handpick around one thousand works out of approximately 10 million currently uploaded onto the platform. Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s Into the Blue is now also available on the special Staff Picks channel. The film has reached 13 thousand views in only a few days.  

Short fiction film Into the Blue had its world premiere in 2017, in the 67th Berlinale Generation 14plus programme, where it received an honourable mention. It premiered in the region later that year, at the 23rd Sarajevo Film Festival, winning the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Short Film. The film went on to win numerous recognitions around the world, including a Student Academy Award nomination presented by the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Into the Blue is a story about 13-year-old Julija and her mother who, fleeing from domestic violence, find refuge on an idyllic island where Julija spent her childhood. The film is a co-production between Croatian film association Motion and Slovenian production company Blade Production. Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović wrote the screenplay, alongside Christina Lazaridi. Gracija Filipović, Vanesa Vidaković Natrlin, Dominik Duždević, Andro Režić, Nataša Dangubić and Marija Kohn head up the cast. Director of photography is Marko Brdar, with Barbara Vekarić, Vlaho Krile (of Motion) and Zoran Dževerdanović (of Blade Production) acting as producers. The film received support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and the Slovenian Film Centre, while the project was developed at the 2016 Short Film Station, a section of Berlinale Talents. 

Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović was born in Dubrovnik in 1985. She holds an MFA in directing from Columbia University in New York. She is the first Croatian woman to have been accepted to the Cannes Cinéfondation residence, during which she spent several months developing her debut fiction feature entitled Murina. The film is co-financed and co-produced by Martin Scorsese’s production company Sikelia Prods. and Rodrigo Teixeira’s RT Features. Last year, Alamat Kusijanović was invited to become a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.   

Cover photographs: scenes from Into the Blue