At the French Institute Médiathèque in Zagreb, the Croatian Programme of the 65th Pula Film Festival was announced, which will run from 14 to 22 July 2018.

Festival director Gordana Restović said the Festival was pleased with the selected films and the interest for submissions in both the competition and out of competition programme. She emphasised that the organisation of the Festival is nearly complete, with final tasks relating to the programme and the practical side of the Festival currently being coordinated.

We are approaching the 65th anniversary of the Festival, and the organisation phase is almost finished. This important moment of announcing the programme is a piece of the mosaic that was missing to complete the project as a whole. I am very pleased with the submissions and the interest for the Festival, as well as the selection by our artistic director, and I believe we will have a true summer of film in Pula.

Anniversaries are always demanding, but our well-established and enthusiastic team has prepared some novelties and organisational units where everybody will find something for themselves; be it the film or side programme, practical, exhibition or music programme. The Festival will also run for one day longer. Having in mind the requests and wishes of our visitors and film professionals, the day usually reserved for the youngest audience has now been moved to make more time on Saturday evening for the awards ceremony, and we have also provided for more accessible prices in pre-sales for sets of tickets for larger families.

We want everybody to feel as if they were in a film during the Festival in Pula.

Zlatko Vidačković, artistic director, said:

The Croatian Programme of the 65th Pula Film Festival will have a total of 17 films competing for awards, of which 10 are Croatian films and 7 are co-productions. Premieres in the Arena will be: Aleksi by Barbara Vekarić, Home by Dario Pleić, Lada Kamenski by Sara Hribar and Marko Šantić, Till the End of the Death by Anđelo Jurkas, For Good Old Times by Eduard Galić, Deep Cuts by Filip Peruzović, Filip Mojzeš and Dubravka Turić, Mali by Antonio Nuić and The Miner by Hanna Slak, as well as Exorcism by Dalibor Matanić, Comic Sans by Nevio Marasović, and The Eight Commissioner by Ivan Salaj. The following films will premiere at Valli Cinema: Catalina by Denijal Hasanović, Perseverance by Miha Knific, An Impossibly Small Object by David Verbeek, and Jimmie by Jesper Ganslandt, while Ivan by Janez Burger and The Frog by Elmir Jukić will be screened as reruns. Chameleon by Dino Kos and Fran Barunčić and Men Don’t Cry by Alen Drljević will be screened out of competition.

Along with feature films, the Programme will not lack in premieres of new seasons of drama series such as The Paper by Dalibor Matanić and Black & White World by Goran Kulenović, as well as documentary series Slumbering Concrete: Split 3 and Varoski Amarcord: Episode 1 - Šibenik. The following short films have been selected: The following short films have been selected: In the Name of the Strawberry, the Chocolate and the Holy Spirit by Karla Lulić, On the Water by Filip Lozić, Summer ’17 by Veno Mušinović, Deep Fried by Ivan Mokrović, Sandra and Marina by Igor Jelinović, and Third Kind by Yorgos Zois.

Director of Croatian Audiovisual Centre Daniel Rafaelić said:

It is precisely the excellent cooperation of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and Pula Film Festival, as the only national film festival, that has shown how the synergy between the two can also generate a range of positive developments. From the emphasis on Croatian films at world premieres to special attention paid to film heritage, from more festival visibility and presence of Croatian film authors to gaining a fully equal status that the quality of Pula Film Festival warrants even on the international stage - the City of Pula and the Festival, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and the Public Institution Pula Film Festival continue with promoting the excellence of both Croatian film and professional organisation of a film festival in Croatia.

Richard Brešković, director of the Residential Marketing Sector of Hrvatski Telekom, spoke about the long and successful cooperation with Pula Film Festival:

Pula Film Festival and Hrvatski Telekom have been cooperating continuously for 16 years. The 65th Pula Film Festival certainly speaks to the quality and importance of the Festival for Croatian cinema and Croatia as a whole. It is a pleasure to be a part of this Festival and enjoy Croatian and foreign films of the highest quality for a whole week in the unique setting of the Pula Arena. I would like to invite you to join us at the Festival, and for all film lovers who will not be able to come to Pula, we will, already traditionally, make available several of the selected films exclusively at MAXtv Video Store and MAXtv To Go platform, so that we can bring at least part of the Festival to entire Croatia. The new MAXtv platform offers a range of interactive features for a new way of watching TV, and we therefore believe that our users, other than at the Festival, will be enjoying the selected films on TV, smartphone or tablet, wherever they are.

See photo gallery HERE.