Europolis Main Section
The international film programme in the Pula Arena has a long tradition: long ago in 1938, even before the Cannes Film Festival was founded, the first film revue held in the Pula Arena drew a large audience. On June 18, 1938, André Berthomieu’s La chaste Suzanne was presented as an opening film and the revue ran until August 28.
Following World War II, a year before the national film revue in the Arena took place, nowadays considered as the first Pula film festival, a foreign film revue was organized. Nine films screened from August 13-23, 1953, among which also Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Precisely because of the exceptional success of the international film revue (with 50000 visitors) the Arena established itself as an ideal location for a film festival.
In 1955, in the presence of the patron, Yugoslav president Tito, Three Coins in the Fountain was showcased, the first film in Croatia to be presented in CinemaScope. Throughout the entire later history of the festival foreign films and co-productions have been screened as part of different programmes, and in 2001 Pula officially became the festival of Croatian and European film. The first European film to win a Grand Golden Arena was 101 Reykjavik by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur.
In 2003, during the 50th jubilee edition of the Festival, Jeremy Irons attends the screening of Callas Forever, whereas John Malkovich invites viewers to visit the Festival in a television video clip shot in Pula. 2005 sees the launch of the Europolis-Meridians International Programme in a movie theatre and the PoPular Programme in the Arena. In 2007 the International Programme moves to the attractive Pula Castle where it is opened by Greta Scacchi, and a Golden Arena for best foreign director is accepted by Jiří Menzel in person. 2008 sees the opening of the Cinema Valli in the presence of Christopher Lee, who accepts a Special Golden Arena for contribution to cinema in the Arena.
In 2009 a retrospective programme dedicated to important world directors is launched: the first retrospective is dedicated to Pedro Almodóvar and the following ones respectively to Giuseppe Tornatore, Claude Chabrol, and James Ivory, who accepts a Golden Arena for lifetime achievement in 2011 in person. 2010 sees the expansion of the Europolis programme to summer festivals in Dubrovnik, Split, Rijeka, Osijek, Zagreb, Šibenik, and Zadar, and this tendency continues the following years as well.
The first country to befriend the Festival was Italy in 2011, followed by France in 2012, whereas the 2013 International Programme of the Festival will be dedicated to the European Union, of which Croatia will become a member on July 1, 2012. 27 films from 27 member countries of the European Union, as well as five from other five members of the MEDIA programme, will be presented as part of three different programmes: Europolis, children’s programme Pulica, and the newly launched programme of European short film.
Applications for the European short and feature film programme Europolis close on May 1, 2013, and they can be submitted during the entire year. In order to apply for the programme you have to send a DVD screener to artistic director of the festival Zlatko Vidačković to the address Nazorova 37, HR-10000 Zagreb, or access data for online screening at artistic.director@pulafilmfestival.hr
