Still no cinema but plenty of film

15th Youth Film Festival and 3rd Four River Film Festival from 9th till 12th September at three venues: City Theater Zorin dom, Dubovac old town and the Youth library / The competition includes 91 films / Side program: "Film 5+", "Dubovac Open Air" and "High School Kids for High School Kids" / The Yellow Flag - a new award promoting nonviolence on film / A series of additional educational events

Zagreb, 6th Sept - The latest editions of the event dedicated to high school film, the 15th Youth Film Festival and the 3rd Four River Film Festival will be held from 9th till 12th September at several venues in Karlovac: at the City Theater Zorin dom, the old town of Dubovac and the City Youth Library.

The competition includes 91 high school films: 39 of them by young Croatian filmmakers, while the remaining 52 have been made by students from around the world - the greatest number of them come from Great Britain, followed by Turkey, Slovenia, Belgium, Slovakia, Denmark and many others.

These films will compete for as many as eleven festival awards: in both the YFF and the FRFF, that is, in the national and international competition there are the following awards: the best animated, documentary, fiction and experimental film. The festival Grand Prix is awarded to the best film both in the YFF and the FRFF competition and there is also the audience award. The awards are decided on by the main festival jury comprised of: Zvonimir Jurić, Marinko Leš and Nikolaus von Uthman. Zvonimir Jurić is a renowned Croatian film director whose latest films, documentary "The Blacks" and short "Yellow Moon" won numerous awards at international festivals. Marinko Leš is an actor from Karlovac who spent a great part of his childhood at the City Theater Zorin dom drama group. In recent years he collaborated on many projects in Croatian theaters and he appeared as an actor in several films. The last member of the jury, Nikolaus von Uthman is a German film critic and author of award-winning shorts and numerous commercial videos.

The final, eleventh award of the festival, the Yellow Flag, has been introduced this year and it is awarded to the film that best promotes nonviolence. Great films are always rewarding, both for those who watch them and those who make them. And when great films also promote the good in people and the society, their value is truly lasting. Therefore, every film that promotes nonviolence in life is truly rewarding for the audience. The purpose of the newly initiated Yellow Flag award is twofold. The first is to encourage young filmmakers to speak out in their films about one of the greatest plagues today, regardless whether the violence is directed towards another person, nature, principles or one's self. The other goal is to raise public awareness about the need for everyday struggle for one's right to live and create without the presence of violence, while film, and art in general, are some of the best ways to make people aware of this sort of approach and motivate them into action. The prevention of violence is always the duty of the state, but also the duty of all of us to say 'No' to violence. This year's films in Karlovac will wonderfully illustrate how the young filmmakers from Croatia and abroad do it. Those which tackle the issue of crime, bullying, destruction of nature, the terror of state institutions, self-destruction, should be especially mentioned, said Boško Picula, a member of the festival selection jury and long time critic of high school works.

The winner of this award will be decided by a special jury comprised of three high school students who all excel in different social spheres. Dorotea Martinec is a final year student of a language gymnasium attending a bilingual program in French and Croatian and has achieved outstanding results in informatics competitions. She also trains sports shooting, is involved with acting and actively volunteers for various organizations. Ivana Paljug attends the Karlovac Gymnasium and her great work and effort have contributed to the fact that her school received a recognition from the National Foundation for Civil Society Development, the „School Friend of the Community" award. For the last ten years she has participated in the City Theater Zorin dom drama group where she appeared in a great number of plays. Buga Marija Šimić is a student of the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium and she first appeared on stage when she was six years old. She has appeared in several theater roles as well as in a few films: "Below the Line" by Petar Krelja, "The Ghost in the Swamp" by Branko Ištvančić and recently in the film "Just between Us" by Rajko Grlić. In addition to acting she is learning several languages and dances.

With the intention of further emphasizing the problem of violence present among young people, as well as the importance of art in the prevention of that violence, in addition to the Yellow Flag award, a discussion forum will be held within the festival program entitled "Film and Youth Against Violence", with the participation of numerous experts who deal with this problem both directly and indirectly. The discussion forum with the participation of many renowned guest will explain the goals of the Yellow Flag award offering many examples and a discussion in order to show that film and young people can go a long way in achieving good. Most importantly, it is to say 'No' to violence in society, added Picula, who will also moderate the discussion. The discussion will be held under the patronage of the Office of the Ombudsman for Children with the participation of Maja Flego, Ombudsman advisor, Andreja Navijalić, psychologist and director of the primary school Grabrik in Karlovac, Majda Rijavec, professor at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb, Robert Zuber, journalist and editor of the Croatian Radiotelevision, Sonja Tarokić a student of directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and others.

In addition to the competition program of the festival the side program offers films for everyone's taste: "Film 5+" brings you film classics - animated film "Lapitch, the Little Shoemaker", children's film "The Secret of an Old Attic" by Vladimir Tadej as well as the "Jewels of Zagreb Film for Kids" consisting of 13 animated shorts for kids created by the famous masters of Croatian animation. The program "High School Kids for High School Kids" gives presentations of similar festivals and workshops, while "Dubovac Open Air" is ideal for all ages and under the open sky of old town of Dubovac it offers the pleasure of seeing two of this year's Croatian hits: "Just between Us" by Rajko Grlić and "Two Sunny Days" directed by Ognjen Sviličić. The latter is also one of the last films on which Vedran Šamanović was director of photography, who was also part of the festival's selection jury last year and to whom this year's edition of the festival is dedicated.

Even though the foundations of this festival are the high school students and their films, considering the fact that this is almost the only film event held in Karlovac, we have always tried to provide, in addition to the top quality main program, something for everyone's taste precisely in the side programs. Therefore, in addition to the aforementioned programs, the end of every festival day will be spiced up with music performances by young bands from Karlovac "Made in Taiwan" and "Deph" and the fun tunes by DJ Tom Luke. We would like to offer a little something for everyone aged 7 to 77. Seats for kids screenings have already been reserved which makes me particularly happy. The total of 4 thousand visitors last year will be difficult to match but I think the residents of Karlovac are up to the task. It is somewhat absurd that the ninth in size city in the country no longer has an operational cinema hall and that is precisely why this years' festival motto is "Still no cinema but plenty of film!". Therefore, apart from the old rundown Edison theater, incidentally the first official cinema hall in Croatia, we have created two new cinema venues - one at a theater, the other under the open sky of a medieval fort. I hope that events like this one will persuade the authorities to think about opening a new cinema hall in Karlovac and that we will soon have our festival opening in such a place. I believe the residents of Karlovac deserve that!, pointed out Marija Ratković, festival coordinator.

The Youth Film Festival is the national festival of high school film and for four consecutive years the YFF has been organized jointly by the Cinema Club Karlovac and the Croatian Film Clubs' Association. Since 2008, it also includes its international version - the Four River Film Festival.

The grand opening of the YFF and the FRFF will be held on Thursday, 9th September at 20.00 h at the City Theater Zorin dom.

8. 9. 2010