Over 20 Croatian Entries at 62nd Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival
The regional competition of the 62nd Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival screens 20 Croatian films, with another one in the student competition. Also, other five films are included in the Panorama section and two more in Cinemapur and Margina Dox side programmes. The Festival takes place 23-29 March and is thematically very different from its previous editions – this year all the forms of documentary film are featured.
The honour to open the Festival on Monday, 23 March at the Union Home’s large hall, went to the multiply award-winning film Naked Island by Tiha K. Gudac, which recently won an award in Sofia and the main award at Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival. Next to this story about Goli otok, told through the point of view of Tiha’s grandfather, the feature documentary competition shows other four Croatian entries: Happily Ever After by Tatjana Božić, Consumed by Borut Šeparović, The Spirits Diary by Damir Čučić, and the Bosnian-Croatian-Austrian co-production The Lost Button by Renato Tonković, Robert Bubalo and Mario Vukadin – a film about the legendary Bijelo dugme drummer Goran Ipe Ivandić, recently awarded at the 9th DORF.
The medium-length documentary competition shows Passage for Stella, directed by Ljiljana Šišmanović, Foreclosure by Neven Hitrec, The Cover Story by Silvana Menđušić, Storms Always Return Home by Petar Krelja, and the short documentary competition features Autofocus by Boris Poljak, Everyday is Christmas by Ante Zlatko Stolica, made at Restart’s Documentary Film School, and Nada's Home by Dario Bukovski. The short fiction competition includes another two Croatian films: The Walker by Filip Mojzeš, also premiering at the 62nd edition of Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival, and The Clean-Up by Jasna Nanut.
The animated film competition category shows Levitation by Marko Meštrović and the award-winning Hunger by Petra Zlonoga, and the experimental film competition features other four Croatian titles: A.D.A.M. by Vladislav Knežević, Amnesiac on the Beach by Dalibor Barić, Serbian-Croatian co-production Friedrichsfelde Ost by Milica Jovčić and Nenad Ćosić, and Slovenian-Croatian co-production The Runner by Toma Zidić.
The student competition features the Croatian film Alone by Lana Kosovac, and the Panorama section includes Children of Transition by Matija Vukšić, Free by Vlatka Vorkapić, Johnny Is Dead by Jure Debak and Ante Zlatko Stolica, Nobody's by Jadran Boban and Once Again by Ana Opalić and Noah Pintarić.
Croatian titles are also featured in 62nd BFDKF’s side programmes, which are screenings Godard-Art by Tomislav Gotovac and Big Day by Đuro Gavran. The entire programme consists of around 150 films, 96 of which competing for the awards in the total amount of about 50,000 euro. ‘Our honest intention is to regain the position this legendary festival once held – the position of an important regional documentary and short film festival – as well as provide a place for meeting and communicating to filmmakers from Serbia, region and world, a place like home,’ said the festival’s artistic director Mladen Matičević.
Check our more details about the 62nd BFDKF on the official website.
Title photos: scenes from The Spirits Diary, Consumed, Generalka; the festival’s visual
