Two weeks before the 15th Mediterranean Film Festival Split, we have announced the entire program, and tickets are being sold now. We are celebrating the comeback of the old normal with the biggest festival yet, new programs, and a fourth location!

FMFS will start on June 16th in open-air cinema Bačvice with the world premiere of the film Kick and Scream, by the director and actor Nina Violić. 72 films from 30 countries will be screened in Golden Gate cinema (Zlatna Vrata), at the Youth center, and, for the first time, on Gripe fort.

- We are proud to say that this is the first time FMFS is supported by Creative Europe, subprogram of MEDIA, which has been made by the European Commission to support European film festivals. Thanks to them, we are bringing you many program and organizational news. We have made a new program for films outside of the Mediterranean region that we think are worth seeing. We will also present four regional festivals, and the European Film Academy with its short film program; a special part of the program is for children and young adults, and we have prepared something for film professionals as well: a screenplay workshop and video games and film dubbing workshop- announced Alen Munitić, director of FMFS.

FMFS’ audience will get a chance to see films that have been a part of the official selection in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, and Toronto, and all of those films are Croatian premieres. One of the films in the main competition is Huda’s salon, by the Palestinian director Hany Abu-Asad who has been nominated for an Oscar for his films Omar and Paradise Now. Huda’s salon is a feminist crime film inspired by true events.

Piggy is a Spanish film, part thriller, part drama, with a little bit of horror mixed in. Full Time is a French drama about a single mother fighting for a better life by Eric Gavel, who approached it like filming a thriller movie, creating tension that does not let go until the very end. Beautiful Moroccan sights and a colorful town are the setting of a brave full-length feature, Life Suits me Well, in which the director, Al Hadi Ulad-Mohand tells his personal story in an honest, tender, and warm way. A strong debut, Between Two Dawns by the Turkish director Selman Nacara, deals with class issues, working class, and moral dilemmas and responsibilities of those in power.

A dark psychological thriller, America Latina, brought to us by the D’Innocenzo brothers, stars the famous Italian actor Eli German. There are two more films set in Italy in the competition this year: Rimini, the new film by the famous director Urlich Seidl, tells a story of a loose and lonely life of a forgotten pop star at the end of his career, who is financing his lavish life style by doing hotel concerts and providing sexual services to fans.

The Silent Land follows a seemingly perfect married couple that rent a vacation house on a sunny, Italian island, and their holiday is ruined when they learn that they are not going to be able to use the pool.

- The Ješke program has become very popular with our audience, so we are continuing to give it prime time. Ješke is a program dedicated to Croatian short films. Authors of these films are the future of Croatian cinematography, and they are competing for the biggest cash prize in Croatia given to short film. The winner will receive HRK 15 000, HRK 5000 will be given to the film that gets the most votes from the audience and the author of the best screenplay, said Munitić

The new festival program of full-length feature films, Parangal, that will screen movies at the north-east bastion of the Gripe fort, brings films from outside of the Mediterranean region. Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom deserves a mention, a dazzling Bhutanese film, nominated for an Oscar for Best International Film. At the same location the audience will get to see The Other Side of the Mediterranean program that will screen Latin American films; one of those films is Sundown, an unpredictable thriller drama by the Mexican director Michael Franco, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Tim Roth.

At the Youth Center, FMFS will once again open a free cinema that will screen the competition part of the short film program. We have received more than 300 applications for this program and we will screen the best films brought to you by the European Film Academy, Animafest Zagreb, Sarajevo Film Festival, Free Zone Belgrade, and FeKK from Ljubljana. In Golden Gate (Zlatna Vrata) cinema, we will screen reruns of the films from the open-air cinema Bačvice, and the program Little Mediterranean for children and young adults. Our program Industry is the best one yet and it will focus on screenplay writing, video games and film dubbing.

A limited number of tickets will be sold online on June 1st, and after the festival booths open on June 12th, the audience will be able to buy tickets at the web shop.

“Cover” yourselves with films, because the summer starts at FMFS!