A re-energised Pula Film Festival, the biggest film festival in Croatia, will welcome top guests including Roger Michell, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Gyorgi Palfi, Tudor Giurgiu and Mike Cahill.

Fridriksson [pictured] will serve on a jury and be the subject of a retrospective including his films Rock in Reykjavik, Children of Nature, Devil’s Island, Angels Of The Universe, and Falcons.

The Pula Pro Industry section will include masterclasses from PR expert Charles MacDonald, marketing veteran John Durie, sound expert Ray Gillon of G-Minor and Nik Powell of the UK’s National Film and Television School (NFTS).

The festival boasts a new artistic team of Mike Downey, Hrvoje Puksec and Tanja Milicic, who took over in April.

The Pula Cinematheque section, under special advistor Rajko Grlic, will focus on the year 1965.

One new strand at the festival will be Dizalica, aimed at cinephiles aged 16-21; selections include We Are The Best! and Bitch Hug. This is added alongside the Children’s Programme Pulica, now moved to the Istrian National Theatre to accomdate more matinees.

The festival is collaborating with the European Film Academy for its short film programme for the first time.

“Croatia has a fabulous film industry and fabulous potential to play its part on the international stage as far as both domestic and international production goes,” says Artistic Board member Mike Downey, who has produced a number of international and local films in the country,  “this is now reflected in the level of both the domestic production showcase at the festival – as well as the international selection supported with a wide variety of international film luminaries. With this sound basis, we hope that Pula will go from strength to strength.”

President of the Artistic Board Hrvoje Pukšec and Festival Director Gordana Restović have unveiled the following programme:

The Croatian features

  • Velvet Terrorists, Kerekes, Pekarcík and Ostrochovský
  • Number 55, Kristijan Milić
  • Happy Endings, Darko Šuvak
  • The Reaper, Zvonimir Jurić
  • The Bridge at the End of the World, Branko Ištvančić
  • Monument to Michael Jackson, Darko Lungulov
  • The Enchanting Porkers, Ivan Livaković
  • The Brave Adventures of a Little Shoemaker, Silvije Petranović
  • Walk the Dog, Filip Peruzović
  • The Wind Blows, Zdravko Mustać
  • Vlog, Bruno Pavić
  • Zagreb Cappuccino, Vanja Sviličić

The Croatian shorts

  • Six Half Past Six, Dalija Dozet
  • Alke, Milan Rukavina, Miroslav Kosanović
  • The Clean-up, Jasna Nanut
  • So Not You, Ivan Sikavica
  • The Chicken, Una Gunjak
  • Boxed, Nebojša Sljepčević
  • Separation, Nina Violić
  • President Nixon’s Present, Igor Šeregi
  • Next to Me, Marta Prus
  • Tresholds, Dijana Mlađenović
  • By Chance, Tanja Golić
  • Together, Daniel Kušan

 The International features in competition:

  • Alienation, Milko Lazarov (Bulgaria)   
  • Amour Fou, Jessica Hausner (Austria/Luxembourg/Germany)         
  • Bridges of Sarajevo by Aida Begić, Leonardo di Costanzo, Jean-Luc Godard, Kamen Kalev, Isild Le Besco, Sergey Loznitsa, Vincenzo Marra, Ursula Meier, Vladimir Perisic, Cristi Puiu, Marc Recha, Angela Schanelec, Teresa Villaverde (France/BIH/Switzerland/Italy/Portugal/Bulgaria)               
  • Class Enemy, Rok Biček (Slovenia)  
  • Concrete Night, Pirjo Honkasalo (Finland/Sweden/Denmark)            
  • Field of Dogs, Lech Majewski (Poland)
  • Free Fall, György Pálfi (Hungary/South Korea/France)                     
  • Ilo Ilo, Anthony Chen (Singapore)                   
  • Japanese Dog, Tudor Cristian Jurgiu (Romania)       
  • Jimmy’s Hall, Ken Loach (UK/Ireland/France)                   
  • Le Weekend, Roger Michell (UK/France)               
  • Love Eternal, Brendan Muldowney (Ireland)              
  • Miracle, Juraj Lehotsky (Slovakia)      
  • The Invisible Woman, Ralph Fiennes (UK)
  • The Mafia Only Kills in Summer, Pif (Pierfrancesco Diliberto) (Italy)
  • Tom at the Farm, Xavier Dolan (Canada/France)
  • Upstream Color, Shane Carruth (US)

International features, out of competition

  • 22 Jump Street, Chris Miller, Phil Lord (US)
  • Chef, Jon Favreau (US)                   
  • I Origins, Mike Cahill (US)                
  • Planes 2: Fire and Rescue, Roberts Gannaway (US)         
  • These Final Hours, Zak Hilditch (Australia)    

Short matters! of the European Film Academy:

  • Butter Lamp, Hu Wei (France/China)
  • Cut, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller (Germany)
  • Death of a Shadow, Tom Van Avermaet (Belgium/France)
  • Houses With Small Windows, Bülent Öztürk (Belgium)
  • Letter, Sergei Loznitsa (Russia/The Netherlands)
  • Morning, Cathy Brady (Ireland/UK)
  • Mystery, Chema García Ibarra (Spain)
  • Nuclear Waste, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (Ukraine)
  • Orbit Ever After, Jamie Stone (UK)
  • A Story for the Modlins, Sergio Oksman (Spain)
  • Sunday 3, Jochen Kuhn (Germany)
  • Though I Know the River Is Dry, Omar Robert Hamilton (Palestine/Egypt/UK/Qatar)
  • The Waves, Miguel Fonseca (Portugal)
  • Winter, Cristina Picchi (Russia)

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