The Mediterranean Film Festival Split opens on 13 June 2024 with the world premiere of the film "Sola" by screenwriter and director Lana Barić. Marija Škaričić, Ivana Roščić, Snježana Sinovčić and Goran Marković star in this truly Mediterranean movie delicacy in which the main character returns to her native island.
After winning the Palme d'Or, a historic success for Croatian cinematography, Nebojša Slijepčević's film "The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent" will have its Croatian premiere on 18 June 2024 at the Bačvice Open-air Cinema.
Animation artists from Split, Veljko and Milivoj Popović, will show their new animated film "Žarko, You Will Spoil the Child!". The film is based on the hit book "The Kid Taken By The Devil", in which Tisja Kljaković Braić recalls growing up in Split in the 1980’s.
Another Crotian film competing in the "Ješke" programme is the film "My Idiot Husband" directed by Luka Galešić, with Marina Redžepović and Nikša Butijer in the main roles. The Slovenian-Croatian co-production "The Sea in Between" directed by Lun Sevnik, starring Leon Lučev and Bruno Mihanović, will also have its Croatian premiere in Split. The film has already won the youth jury award at the Trieste Film Festival.
The biggest news of this year's FMFS is that "Ješke" has become an international programme.
- For years, we have secured prime time slots for Croatian short films in front of the largest audience in the country, and we made this decision because it is time to position the "Ješke" programme even more strongly at an international level. New Croatian films from this festival will be shown in prime time at the Bačvice Open-air Cinema and at the Gripe Fortress alongside the best Mediterranean short films. In addition, the films from this year’s "Ješke", alongside festival’s “Udica”, are also competing for the highest monetary award for a short film in the region, in the amount of 3,000 euros - said director Alen Munitić.
And so, the Albanian director Erenik Beqiri, who was awarded in Venice for the film "A Short Trip", and has won an award in Cannes with his previous film "The Van", is coming to Split in person. Greece is represented by two films, "Highway of a Broken Heart" by Nikos Kyritsis and "Aerolin" by Alexis Koukias Pantelis, whose cameraman is Croatian Davor Marenjak. The Spanish film "Mussol" by Juanjo Giménez, director with an Oscar nomination, will compete for the award at the FMFS. The selectors also chose three titles by lesser-known authors whose great films have just begun being screened at festivals: the Spanish "Arrows" by the young director Imanol Ruiz de Lara, the French "Clamor" by the director Salomé Da Souza, and the Portuguese "The Convent Gardener" by Patricia Neves Gomes.
In addition to Nebojša Slijepčević's new film out of competition, three films that had begun their development journey at the FMFS screenwriting workshop will be screened: "The Pack" by Marko Jukić, "Tango Siesta" by Dinko Božanić and "The Drawer" by Paško Vukasović. Particularly interesting will be the screening of the film "1001 Nights" directed by Rea Rajčić, which had its world premiere in Toronto, and was filmed near the Gripe Fortress with the sounds of the peacocks who play a significant role in the film.
