Great Atmosphere With Lots of Laughter the Fifth Day of Pula Film Festival
The evening at the Arena started with the announcement of best rated projects in the Industry Programme of this year’s Pula Film Festival. In May this year, representatives of the film industry submitted their projects in post-production phase to the Work in Progress Programme. The call for submissions was open to all projects in the category of Croatian Film and Minority Croatian Co-productions. Work in Progress is a competition programme, and the best films win valuable post-production prizes in the amount of more than 150,000 HRK to be used to complete the projects. The jury, consisting of Vanja Kaluđerčić, Simon Perry, and Xavier Henry-Rashid listened to all of the presentations and made a decision to present the prizes to The Glory of Emptiness by Jasmin Duraković and production company UG Scena, Traces by Dubravka Turić and production company Kinorama, and M by Vardan Tozija and production company Focus Pocus Films.
The screening of Tune Up by Stanislav Tomić in the Croatian Programme took place with a full auditorium at the Arena at 9.30 p.m. The film follows the adventures of tamburica band Aveti ravnice. The atmosphere at the screening was cheerful and the big film crew, as well as a tamburica band, were also present. As director Tomić said, the idea to make this comedy came from screenwriter Mario Marko Krce, and although it seemed surreal at the time, it turned out to be a great basis for a good comedy, as the audience had the opportunity to see yesterday.
In the Special Screenings Programme – Jury Film, the Academy Award winner Ida by Pawel Pawlikowski was screened at the Istrian National Theatre. Pawlikowski is the president of the Croatian Programme Jury this year.
The Croatian premiere of the fantasy drama Mayday by Karen Cinnore was held at Kaštel. This American production was filmed around Pula and was screened at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The evening at the Arena was closed by the Croatian premiere of The Big Hit by the French director Emmanuel Coucol, the winner of the European Film Award for Best European Comedy.
The sixth day of Pula Film Festival will also be the Italy Day, and is reserved for the film The Dawn by Dalibor Matanić, the first big Croatian-Italian co-production in a long time. With an already established team, Tihana Lazović and Krešimir Mikić in leading roles, Matanić presents a drama about a family that has suffered irreparable damage and the political extremism that further divides them. The Dawn had its world premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
From Italy, we have two films. Thou Shalt Not Hate by Mauro Mancini, a film about the consequences of a decision to not help a victim hit by a car because he has a Nazi tattoo, which was filmed in Trieste, will be screened at 7 p.m. at the Istrian National Theatre. The second film Nowhere Special, directed and produced by Uberto Pasolini and starring James Norton tells the story of a single father facing a terminal illness, will be screened at 9.30 p.m. at Kaštel. Both film had their premieres at Venice Film Festival.
The 1977 Italian horror film Suspiria directed by Dario Argento will be screened at the Arena as a Croatian cinema premiere of the cult classic starring the legendary Alida Valli, among others.
