12th edition of Mediterranean Film Festival Split starts next Thursday (June 13th), putting focus this year on local short film genre. The program "Ješke" does not only get the prime time schedule ahead of screenings of top-quality feature length movies, but also includes a competition in which 15 short movies are trying to win 12,000 kn, the biggest money prize introduced by a Croatian film festival for this genre.

This year’s FMFS starts with Croatian premiere of short film created by Snježana Tribuson ‘Dok je trajao Roland Garros’ , inspired by a story written by Tanja Mravak – the same as the film ‘Pivac’ by Sabrina Begović Ćorić, enlisted also as a part of the program. The audience in Split will be the first to get the chance to check documentary films ‘Strujanja’ by Katerina Duda, ‘Spirala’ by Petar Vukičević, who is a student from Split, ‘Dogovor’ by Filip Lozić, ‘Bogomoljka’ by Mladen Stanić and ‘Lovebox’ by Ivan Turković Krnjak’ that has already been screened in a series of international film festivals.

-We are proud to say that every year even more authors are seeing FMFS as an opportunity for their Croatian premieres. The winner will be decided this time by a three-member jury whose members are film professionals in the field of distribution, acquiring and selling movies. The winner of ‘Ješke’ will be announced by Juan Torres from a Spanish company Latido Films, regional distributer Rajko Petrović from Five Stars Film Distribution and Selma Mehadžić as a representative of the Croatian distributor - Zagreb Film Festival - said Alen Munitić, FMFS manager.

Short films that are premiering in Split are also: ‘Malo se sjećam tog dana’ by Leon Lučev, ‘Još jedan odlazak’ by Renata Poljak, ‘Bila soba’ by Mladen Stanić, ‘Moljci’ by Tomislav Đurinec, "U ime Jagode, Čokolade i Duha Svetoga" by Karla Lulić, "Stepska Lisica" by Andrija Mardešić, "Udahnut život" by Ivana Bošnjak and Thomas Johnson, and from a recent Animafest there is "Mačka je uvijek ženska" by Martina Meštrović and Tanja Vujasinović. It is also important to emphasize the importance of Croatian medium-length films, so this year medium-lenth program also has a prime time screening, at our new open air cinema in front of the Youth Center (Dom Mladih). The entrance is free of charge for all screenings. Apart from "Glavno jelo" by Kristina Barišić, all other titles are documentary films. We are screening ‘Doplovit ce Rex’ by Josip Lukić "Dom boraca" by Ivan Ramljak, "Doma za Božić" by Tomislav Đurinec, "Kol’ko god nas noge nose" by Renata Lucić and "IKEA for YU" by Marija Ratković Vidaković and Dinka Radonić – announced Munitić, giving special thanks to Martina Petrović, manager of Creative Europe Desk – MEDIA Office , helping FMFS to develop even higher quality program aiming to support young movie professionals.

For the second time within the framework of Mediterranean Film Festival Split, in partnership with the Creative Europe Desk - MEDIA Office, there is a workshop organised -"How to develop and present projects for the international market". The Croatian producer Tamara Babun is in charge of the workshop, and the most significant moment is the Pitching forum. Company "Uje" will provide financial support of 10,000 kn for the winner helping the realization of the project. In addition, the post-production studio ECLECTICA from Zagreb will award the winner with colour correction service in the amount of 15,000 kn.

-Split today needs this festival more than ever. This year we have arranged a somewhat more ambitious cooperation with the festival leadership, so we are participating in the award for the winner of "Ješke" and in the award for the best project at the workshop. We strive to be socially responsible and support projects that will make this environment more civilized; better, more educated and more cultured - said Leopold Botteri from "Uje" and "Aqua".