Special country focus on Turkey; youth programme moves to neighbouring Buzet.

The Motovun Film Festival is aiming to go back to its “radical roots” for the 17th edition’s programme, which runs July 26-30.

The main programme of 21 films is:

  • Kelly+Victor, Kieran Evans
  • Bad Hair, Mariana Rondon
  • Black Coal. Thin Ice, Diao Yinan
  • Boyhood, Richard Linklater
  • All Is Lost, J. C. Chandor
  • Stratos, Yannis Economides
  • Ida, Pawel Pawlikowski
  • In Order Of Disappearance, Peter Molland
  • Force Majeure – Turist, Ruben Ostlund
  • Varvari, Ivan Ikić
  • Ana Ana, Petr Lom
  • Djeca Tranzicije, Matija Vukšić
  • Paris Of The North, Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson
  • Frank, Lenny Abrahamson
  • Broj 55, Kristijan Milić
  • Police Officer’s Wife, Phillip Groening
  • Tribe, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky
  • Blind, Eskil Vogt
  • Human Capital, Paolo Virzi
  • Final Cut, Gyorgy Palfi

A surprise film will be added later.

The unusual ‘jury in exile’ will be comprised of people live in exile, are under house arrest or experience travel bans. Femen’s Inna Schevchenko from the Ukraine will be in Motovun but remote jurors will include Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin of the Belarus Free Theatre and Syria’s Ala’a Basatneh better known as #chicagogirl; and there will be an ‘empty chair’ on the jury in honour of Ukranian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who is currently in Lefortovo prison.

“If last year was the year we ‘cheered-up’ our selection, by taking back more ‘crowd pleasers’ into the Main Square,” said festival president (and film producer) Mike Downey. “Having gone down a depressing “post Communist angst” route in previous years - this year we have gone for films and sidebars which are not only entertaining but also socially engaged and many with a strong human rights element. Film can be an agent for change – and so can a film festival, and this is the route we have taken this year.”

Guests headed to the Croatian mountain town this year will include Stephen Daldry, presenting Billy Elliott during the 30th anniversary of the UK miners’ strike, Ida writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Icelandic author Haffstein Gunnar Sigurdsson, Russian director Andrej Zvjagintsev [pictured] (who will collect the Maverick Award), and Croatian musician Arsen Dedic.

Turkey will be the partner country of 2014, with filmmakers such as Yesim Ustaoglu coming to Motovun for a programme of eight Turkish features.

One programme innovation will be screening children’s and youth films from Buzz@teen in the neighbouring town of Buzet. Titles will include Antboy, Supernova, Baikonur and We Are The Best!

A strand of artists’ documentaries will include the Nick Cave project 20,000 Days on Earth directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, Damjan Kozole’s Projekt: Rak and Michel Gondry’s Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?.

There will also be 30 short films in the programme.

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