Short films have long been a real treasure trove of creativity and originality, and with them many of us gladly wasted time during quarantine. For Motovun Film Festival, these gems have always been an important part of the program, and since last year, the Motovun selection has gained in importance by becoming a springboard for a nomination for the European Film Award.
“Earth pressed ‘pause’ on its remote control but the short film microorganism persistently resisted. We may have lacked in, say, yeast and toilet paper, but in short films we certainly haven’t. Until the last moment, we weren’t sure if and how we would hold the festival, but we were comforted by the fact that despite everything, we have short ones! And great ones!”, said the selector Andrej Korovljev.
As people would say – there is something for everyone: difficult topics, those engaged and questioning, but also cheerful optimistic works. Among the selected are four domestic films, two of which will have their world premiere: Nothing by Stanislav Tomić based on the story by Zoran Ferić and the collage film Microcassette – The Smallest Tape I Have Ever Seen directed by Igor Bezinović and Ivana Pipal. We will also see The Adventures of Gloria Scott – Murder in the Cathedral directed by Matija Pisačić and Tvrtko Raspolić, an entertaining animation about a detective antiheroine, selected for the prestigious festival in Annecy. The Flood by Kristijan Krajnčan is visually brilliant, a Slovenian film and a minority Croatian co-production, which has already attracted attention at festivals in Clermont Ferrand and Thessaloniki.
Strong films are accompanied by a strong jury. It consists of Laurent Crouzeix, director of the Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival, then Salette Ramalho, program director of the Curtas Vila do Conde festival in Portugal, and Jiří Havlíček, director of Reconstruction, last year’s Motovun Shorts winner, who won an EFA nomination.
This years Shorts are:
- Microcassette – The Smallest Cassette I’ve Ever Seen, Igor Bezinović, Ivana Pipal, Croatia, Serbia
- The Adventures of Gloria Scott – Murder in the Cathedral, Matija Pisacic, Tvrtko Raspolic, Croatia, Serbia
- Colonello Futurista (out of competition), Vladislav Knežević, Croatia
- Nothing, Stanislav Tomić, Croatia
- Sherbet, Nikola Stojanović, Serbia
- The Flood, Kristijan Krajnčan, Slovenia, Croatia
- Interstate 8, Anne Thieme, Germany
- The Visit, Đorđe Vojvodić, Montenegro
- Life Between the Exit Signs, Nicolas Pindeus, Austria
- The Best Orchestra in the World, Henning Backhaus, Austria
- 22:47 Line 34, Michael Karrer, Switzerland
- Drifting, Hanxiong Bo, SAD
- White Eye, Tomer Shushan, Israel
- Don’t Draw the Curtain, Andrei Florescu, Romania
- Summer Fasting, Abdenoure Ziane, France
- Butterflies, Yona Rozenkier, Israel, France
- Silence of the Fish, Hilke Rönnfeldt, Iceland
- September, Giulia Louise Steigerwalt, Italy
- Life in Peace, Gonzalo Visedo, Spain
- Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Mads Koudal, Denmark
- My lady of the Camellia, Edouard Montoute, French Guiana
- O F F__R A D A R, Malin Levanon, Sweden
- The Kites, Syed Payam Hosseini, Iran
- Destiny, Bonifacio Angius, Italy
- To the Dusty Sea, Héloïse Ferlay, France
