August 22, 2021 - The 19th Liburnia Film Festival starts tomorrow in Opatija, with 44 Croatian documentaries on the program, 22 of which are in competition for awards.

Documentaries in competition for festival awards: the best film is chosen by the jury and the audience, the best direction, photography, editing, sound design, and the best regional film, will be shown on the small Summer Stage in Opatija, writes HRT Magazin.

The five-member international jury consists of art historian and curator Branka Benčić, editor and director Vladimir Gojun, director and artistic director of Beldocs Marko Grba Singh, organizer of film programs and representative of the Kinedok network Szabolcs Szyrony and film critic Višnja Vukašinović.

The festival awards the best film and the audience award with a cash prize and Restart with a technical service for making DCP.

For the first time, AVC Zagreb is awarding authors for the best photography and best sound design with a voucher for the purchase of film equipment in the amount of 700 euros, and ACER Croatia will award the prize for the best editing.

As in previous years, the IDF Documentary Film Institute and the Balkan Documentary Center award the best director and the best regional film. All winners will receive an original statue of the Kastav artist Saša Jantolek.

On Friday, August 27, before the announcement of the best, the audience will watch two documentaries produced by the co-organizers of the Liburnia Film Festival of the Zagreb association Restart "Letters to Nicholas" Dunja Ivezić and "More than 35" by Timy Šarec.

The festival will close with the world premiere of Relje Dušek's film "Enrico Marotti: This is my voyage" about the world champion in windsurfing from Volosko.

The accompanying program includes a case study of Đuro Gavran's film "One of Us", as an introduction to the panel discussion "When Violence Lives at Home".

The festival continues the afternoon conversations of the audience with the authors of the films shown the previous day.

The accompanying film program includes the program of the Regional with documentaries from the Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Istria counties and a retrospective of films by Đuro Gavran.

The 19th Liburnia Film Festival is organized by the LFF Association, co-organized by Restart, and partnered by the Opatija Festival. It is supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Center, the City of Opatija, the County of Primorje-Gorski Kotar, the Society of Croatian Film Directors, AVC Zagreb, ACER Croatia, and other supporters.

Learn more about the 19th edition of the Liburnia Film Festival HERE.

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ZAGREB, 9 July 2021- The Duart platform, developed by Croatian actress and casting director Sanja Drakulić to promote Croatian actors and film workers, will be presented at the Marché du Film fair which is taking place as part of the Cannes Film Festival until 15 July.

Over 80 Croatian film professionals have been recruited for international projects via this platform in the last five years, and the project is supported by the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre said.

Drakulić recently participated as a casting director in two foreign projects, a Swedish series and a film for Netflix, and is currently working on another Netflix project. She said that such projects recruit top-class professionals who have graduated from academies in London, New York, Los Angeles, as well as in Zagreb, Osijek, Split and Rijeka.

Drakulić said that her mission was to create a pool of Croatian film professionals worthy of any international production. She said that the number of users of the Duart platform has been increasing over the years and has now reached 500.

Drakulić said that Cannes was an opportunity for Croatian film workers to connect more closely with foreign productions and further promote Croatia as a film-making destination.

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