Motovun Film Festival
The Motovun Film Festival is an annual film festival established in 1999 and held in the small town of Motovun, Croatia. It usually takes place over five or six days in late July or early August.
Contents
Overview
Motovun Film Festival is entirely dedicated to films made in small studios and independent film productions. Founded by film director Rajko Grlić and producer Boris T. Matić, it was first organized in the late 1990s to fill the gap in cinema repertoire as there were almost none non-Hollywood films in wide distribution in Croatia at the time. The festival program every year consists of around 70 titles from all over the world, from documentaries to feature films, short and feature-length films, from guerrilla-made films to co-productions.
Over time the festival become widely popular among Croatian youths, as well as foreign backpackers. Every year during the festival, a camp for visitors is organized on the foothills of Motovun, where anybody can put up a tent. The festivalgoers' camp has become one of the hallmarks of the festival. In January 2007 British newspaper The Guardian described the festival as "a cross between Glastonbury and Sundance."[1]
The festival also grew in status on the festival circuit. From an event that was once considered a "backpacker's film festival," by 2007 it was recognized as one of the two most important film festivals held on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, along with the Sarajevo Film Festival.[2]
The 2011 festival, which was supposed to be its 13th edition, was re-numerated by organizers as 14th for humorous reasons and triskaidekaphobia.[3] The skipped year was maintained in all later festival editions, so the most recent 2015 festival (held for the 17th time) was officially designated as the "18th Motovun Film Festival".
Awards
The main award at the festival is called Propeler Motovuna (English: The Propeller of Motovun, inspired by the prominent wind turbines located near Motovun).
Other awards at the festival are the Motovun Online award for best short film, the odAdoA (From 'A' to 'A') award for best film in the regional competition (the name of the award is short for From Austria to Albania, roughly describing the region covered), and the film critics' FIPRESCI Award.
In 2008, the Motovun Maverick Award was introduced, given to notable filmmakers for lifetime achievement. Its first recipient was Ken Russell. In 2013, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and The Gardener were given the award.
Award winners
Propeller of Motovun
| Year | Film | Director | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 (2nd) | Billy Elliot | Stephen Daldry |  United Kingdom |
| 2001 (3rd) | Last Resort | Paweł Pawlikowski | United Kingdom |
| 2002 (4th) | Bloody Sunday | Paul Greengrass | United Kingdom |
| 2003 (5th) | Punch-Drunk Love | Paul Thomas Anderson |  United States |
| 2004 (6th) | Ae Fond Kiss… | Ken Loach | United Kingdom |
| 2005 (7th) | The Death of Mr. Lazarescu | Cristi Puiu |  Romania |
| 2006 (8th) | Look Both Ways | Sarah Watt |  Australia |
| 2007 (9th) | Sweet Mud | Dror Shaul |  Israel |
| 2008 (10th) | Silent Light | Carlos Reygadas |  Mexico |
| 2009 (11th) | Fish Tank | Andrea Arnold | United Kingdom |
| 2010 (12th) | October | Daniel and Diego Vega Vidal |  Peru |
| 2011 (14th) | Bullhead | Michaël R. Roskam |  Belgium |
| 2012 (15th) | The Delay | Rodrigo Plá |  Uruguay |
| 2013 (16th) | The Plague | Neus Ballús |  Spain |
| 2014 (17th) | The Tribe | Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy |  Ukraine |
| 2015 (18th) | The Wakhan Front | Clément Cogitore |  France |
FIPRESCI Prize
| Year | Film | Director | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 (3rd) | No Man's Land | Danis Tanović |  Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 2002 (4th) | Grill Point | Andreas Dresen |  Germany |
| 2003 (5th) | Margarette's Feast | Renato Falcão |  Brazil |
| 2004 (6th) | The Five Obstructions | Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth |  Denmark |
| 2005 (7th) | Day and Night | Simon Staho |  Sweden |
| 2006 (8th) | We Feed the World | Erwin Wagenhofer |  Austria |
| 2007 (9th) | Hallam Foe | David Mackenzie | United Kingdom |
| 2008 (10th) | Blind Loves | Juraj Lehotský |  Slovakia |
| 2009 (11th) | Fish Tank | Andrea Arnold | United Kingdom |
| 2010 (12th) | The Four Times | Michelangelo Frammartino |  Italy |
| 2011 (14th) | Martha | Marcelino Islas Hernández | Mexico |
| 2012 (15th) | Play | Ruben Östlund | Sweden |
| 2013 (16th) | The Daughter | Thanos Anastopoulos |  Greece |
| 2014 (17th) | Force Majeure | Ruben Östlund | Sweden |
| 2015 (18th) | Magical Girl | Carlos Vermut | Spain |
Notable guests
People who visited the festival include:
- Dušan Makavejev
- Stephen Daldry [4]
- Paul Thomas Anderson [4]
- Ken Russell
- Vanessa Redgrave
- Amanda Plummer
- Mira Furlan
- Milena Dravić
- Jason Biggs
- Jamie Bell
References
External links
- Official website (Croatian) (English)
- Motovun Film Festival at the Internet Movie Database
