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FESTIVALS Croatia

Motovun Film Festival announces the programme for its 18th edition

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- With around 20 films in the main programme, including winners from Cannes, Venice, Tribeca and San Sebastian, the upcoming edition looks set to impress

Motovun Film Festival announces the programme for its 18th edition

With its 18th edition taking place from 25-29 July, the Motovun Film Festival will come of age this year. The programme selection for this iteration was made by Mike Downey, president of the Council Of Advisors, selector Jurica Pavicic, festival director Igor Mirkovic, selector Milena Zajović, and selector for the Rendez-vous Festival of France in Croatia Alemka Lisinski.

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Highlights include the Festival of France in Croatia, which will screen a wide range of French films, while from Denmark comes a programme entitled “Twenty Years of Dogma”, a review of the film movement that so indelibly marked the first year of the festival. 

Zajović said, “We are happy to have a wide variety of films in our main programme – ranging from those with sound references to some little surprises that, we hope, could soon turn into big ones.”

The line-up of the main programme includes numerous laureates from prestigious international festivals, led by The Lobster [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Yorgos Lanthimos
film profile
]
by Yorgos Lanthimos, the winner of the Jury Prize in competition at Cannes 2015, which stars Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C Reilly and Lea Seydoux. Other aces up the main programme’s sleeve are The High Sun [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dalibor Matanic
interview: Tihana Lazovic
film profile
]
by Dalibor Matanić, which won a jury award in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, and The Postman's White Nights by Andrei Konchalovsky, the winner of a Silver Lion at Venice.

Directly from Spain comes the San Sebastian Golden Shell winner Magical Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Vermut
film profile
]
by Carlos Vermut, a thriller with elements of horror. Meanwhile, Iceland-based filmmaker Dagur Kari is back in Motovun with his comedy-drama Virgin Mountain [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, about a clumsy, gentle giant whose life changes drastically after he falls in love.

Three powerful movies dealing with coming of age are also on the line-up: the eccentric British film The Falling [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carol Morley
film profile
]
, the Irish comedy You're Ugly Too [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mark Noonan
film profile
]
and the anxiety-loaded Bridgend [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
from Denmark.

Partner Country, the festival's most popular sidebar, will focus on France this year. As part of Rendez-vous – Festival of France in Croatia, a wide variety of French films will be coming to Motovun, including Jacky in the Kingdom Of Women [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Riad Sattouf, Li’l Quinquin [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Bruno Dumont and Breathe [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lou de Laâge
film profile
]
by Melanie Laurent. The main retrospective programme, called The Brutal French, features a selection of films by authors considered to be members of what was called the "new French extremism" at the turn of the century – with early works by names such as Leos Carax, François Ozon and Claire Denis.

Mike Downey said: “As one of the original founders of the Motovun Film Festival, I find it amazing that we are still going after 18 years – and after 18 years I’d like to say that we have come of age, but it really isn’t that kind of festival. Eighteen years on, we would have been nothing without the amazing team that shaped the festival’s history – Rajko Grilc, Boris T Matic, Olinka Vistica and the current team.

“The 2015 selection remains vibrant, challenging, intelligent, irreverent and with the usual sense of humour that has become the festival’s trademark, and which has allowed me over the years to bring such eminent cinema luminaries as Stephen Daldry, Paul Thomas Anderson, Pawel Pawlikowski, Jeremy Thomas and suchlike to the Motovun movie mountain.”

The main programme for the gathering can be found here

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