05/03/2020 - The important Balkan gathering is about to welcome more than 100 films to a new venue while still focusing on its highly curated programme

The ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival has already unveiled the full line-up for its 16^th edition. Helmed by its founder, Nenad Puhovski, the most important documentary event in Croatia and one of the leading ones in the Balkans will this year host 112 documentaries across its various sections. A total of 34 films will be participating in the two official competitions – International and Regional – for the festival’s Big Stamp Award, while up-and-coming directors under 35 years of age will also be eligible for the Little Stamp Award. ZagrebDox, which this year runs from 15-22 March, has also switched its main venue, so all of the screenings and events will now be hosted at the CineStar Zagreb – Branimir Mingle Mall.

Seventeen documentaries, including Oscar-nominated titles and winners of prestigious festivals such as Sundance, IDFA, CPH:DOX, DOK Leipzig and KVIFF, form the International Competition of ZagrebDox. European co-productions are in the majority in the selection, including the Oscar-nominated For Sama [+see also:
film review
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interview: Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
film profile] by Waad Al-Khateab and Edward Watts (UK/USA), and The Cave [+see also:
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film profile] by Feras Fayyad (Syria/Denmark/Germany/USA/Qatar). Other titles were festooned with awards at IDFA, including the winner of Best Feature-length Documentary, In a Whisper [+see also:
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interview: Patricia Pérez and Heidi Ha…
film profile] by Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez Fernández (Spain/France/Switzerland/Cuba); Sunless Shadows [+see also:
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film profile] (Iran/Norway) by Iran’s Mehrdad Oskouei, which scooped Best Director; the winner of the mid-length competition, Anticlockwise (Iran) by Jalal Vafaei; and the IDFA First Appearance Special Mention winner, Ilya Povolotskiy’s debut, Froth (Russia/Qatar). Also, the winner of DOK Leipzig, Exemplary Behaviour [+see also:
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film profile] by Audrius Mickevičius and Nerijus Milerius (Lithuania/Slovenia/Bulgaria/Italy), and the victor of CPH:DOX, Ridge [+see also:
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film profile] by John Skoog (Sweden), are included, along with the KVIFF Grand Prix winner Immortal [+see also:
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interview: Ksenia Okhapkina
film profile] by Ksenia Okhapkina (Estonia/Latvia) and the winner of the Best Emerging Director Award at the Locarno Film Festival, Hassen Ferhani, for 143 Sahara Street [+see also:
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film profile] (Algeria/France/Qatar).

Furthermore, the Sundance Special Jury Award laureate The Painter and the Thief [+see also:
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interview: Benjamin Ree
film profile] by Benjamin Ree (Norway) and the winner of the Special Jury Award for Cinematography at Sundance, Luke Lorentzen for Midnight Family (USA/Mexico), are featured in the selection, along with multi-award-winning features such as Advocate [+see also:
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interview: Rachel Leah Jones, Lea Tsemel
film profile] by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaïche (Israel/Canada/Switzerland), Fraemling by Mikel Cee Karlsson (Sweden), Gods of Molenbeek [+see also:
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film profile] by Reetta Huhtanen (Finland/Belgium/Germany), It Takes a Family [+see also:
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interview: Susanne Kovács
film profile] by Susanne Kovács (Denmark), and The Wind. A Documentary Thriller [+see also:
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interview: Michał Bielawski
film profile] by Michał Bielawski (Poland/Slovakia).

There are also 17 titles that make up the Regional Competition of ZagrebDox, six of which are Croatian documentaries. In detail, Nun of Your Business by debutante Ivana Marinić Kragić (Croatia/Serbia) tells a story of love in the least likely of places, and this movie, together with the medium-lengths Oxygen Nitrogen by Damir Čučić, One of Us by Đuro Gavran, Push-Pull by Neven Hitrec and the short The Anonymous Shoal by Branko Ištvančić, will be enjoying their world premieres at the festival. Little Star Rising by Slađana Lučić (Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovina), which was screened at Sarajevo last summer, will also get an airing.

The rest of the regional selection includes the features Speak So I Can See You [+see also:
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interview: Marija Stojnić
film profile] by Marija Stojnić (Serbia/Croatia/Qatar), the Locarno- and Sarajevo-awarded The Euphoria of Being [+see also:
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film profile] by Réka Szabó (Hungary), Collective [+see also:
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film profile] by Alexander Nanau (Romania), Acasă - My Home [+see also:
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interview: Radu Ciorniciuc
film profile] by Radu Ciorniciuc (Romania/Finland/Germany), Siddhartha by Damiano Giacomelli and Lorenzo Raponi (Italy), Daughter of Camorra [+see also:
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interview: Siniša Gacić
film profile] by Siniša Gačić (Slovenia/Italy), Movements of a Nearby Mountain [+see also:
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interview: Sebastian Brameshuber
film profile] by Sebastian Brameshuber (Austria/France), the medium-length Bulgarian Dream by Srđan Šarenac (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and the shorts Airborne by Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Locked Storms by Vanja Dimitrova and Natasha Dimitrevska (North Macedonia), and Then Comes the Evening by Maja Novaković (Serbia).

As always, ZagrebDox offers more sections than just the competitive ones, and this year, the sidebars include Biography Dox, Controversial Dox, Happy Dox, Masters of Dox, Musical Globe, State of Affairs, ADU DOX (films from the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Arts), Teen Dox, and Factumentaries. Also, two new programmes are being introduced: Eco Dox, which deals with the environmental crisis, and Filmmakers on Filmmakers, which features portraits of world-renowned figures in cinema, made by acclaimed directors.

As for the retrospectives, three programmes are being organised: one is dedicated to British director Lucy Walker, who will also hold a master class; there will also be a special selection curated by Diana Nenadić on Female Directors in Croatian Documentary Production (including films from the past five years by Milica Borojević, Snježana Tribuson, Katarina Zrinka Matijević, Tatjana Božić and Dana Budisavljević, with the latter giving a lecture as well); and the Author’s Night will focus on acclaimed Croatian helmer Goran Dević.