The Mediterranean Film Festival Split has entered the final three days of its 18th edition, with a rich selection of standout films screening across all four festival venues.

At the Gripe Fortress, the Slovenian film Little Trouble Girls will have its Croatian premiere this evening, presented by the film’s crew. This visually striking coming-of-age drama is the debut feature by Slovenian director Urška Djukić and was premiered in the Perspectives programme at this year’s Berlinale.

At the Bačvice Open-Air Cinema, Split audiences will also be the first to see Waves, a thriller by director Jiří Mádl. After its first screening, the film received a ten-minute standing ovation and went on to become the second most-watched film of all time in Czech cinemas. It is inspired by a true story about a group of journalists determined to broadcast independent news regardless of the consequences.

Arriving with the Audience Award from the Berlinale is Deaf, a moving drama by director Eva Libertad. Thanks to the collaboration with the Film svima project (Filmaktiv Association, Associations of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Associations of the Blind of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, and Kultura svima), the film will be screened in an inclusive version with Croatian subtitles.

On Friday, the Zlatna vrata Cinema will host the Portuguese black comedy about euthanasia Dreaming of Lions, presented by director Paolo Marinou Blanco, while at the Gripe Fortress audiences can see The Boy with the Pink Pants, an Italian box-office hit seen by 1.2 million viewers. The film is based on a tragic true story about the consequences of peer violence and is adapted from a book written by the boy’s mother, Andrea, who will attend the Croatian premiere of the film in Split.

At the Bačvice Open-Air Cinema on 20 June, Late Shift will be screened, a Swiss–German film starring the outstanding Leonie Benesch (The Teacher’s Lounge, The White Ribbon), who prepared for the role by training in a hospital under the mentorship of an intensive care nurse. Director Petra Volpe found inspiration for the Berlinale-selected film in a book in which a young nurse, Madeline, describes the intense stress of her daily work.

For Saturday’s closing film, the festival has selected the first American feature by Turkish director Tolga Karaçelik (known for the hit film Butterflies), starring the renowned Steve Buscemi, which won the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival.