First day of YFF and FRFF: Films, education and fun!

8th September, Karlovac – The grand opening of the Youth Film Festival and the Four River Film Festival will be held on Thursday, 9th September, at 8 o’clock in the evening, at the City Theater Zorin dom and it will be hosted by one of the most talented actresses today, a Karlovac native, Zrinka Cvitešić. After the opening ceremony, the audience will have a chance to see the first competition screening consisting of twelve films in the YFF and FRFF program.

The festival, however, starts earlier than that, with a matinee screening of the film “The Secret of an Old Attic” within the program “Film 5+”. It is a 1984 film by Vladimir Tadej realized in a Yugoslavian-Czech coproduction, and it very skillfully combines adventure, action, espionage and humor, in the manner of real kids and teens films, something that is rarely seen in films today. It is a story about two boys, radio-amateurs, Miro from Zagreb and Pepek from Prague, who, while spending school holidays on the island of Hvar, discover a long-forgotten peculiar anti-gravity cannon which had been invented by Miro’s great grandfather during World War I. The cast includes the young Rene Bitorajec and Mario Mirković, today both well-known actors, while the latter will be joining us at the screening in Karlovac. The screening starts at 12 o’clock at the City Theater Zorin dom.

The program “High School Kids for High School Kids” starts at 6 o’clock in the afternoon at the Youth Library, and it presents similar youth festivals and workshops. Electric December is a project which functions as a traditional advent calendar – each day in December, leading up to Christmas, a virtual window is opened which reveals a new digital treat – a film, a game, an animation, etc. Many partnerships of digital artists and filmmakers with schools and organizations were stared in order to produce these treats. What started out as a platform for the presentation of works of young people from Bristol and the south of UK is today a project on the European level for the exchange of ideas and filmmaking potential. 

VAFI - International Children and Youth Animation Film Festival Varaždin will also present several films. The festival had its first edition this year, while the deadline for applications for next year is open now. The festival was created with the intention to promote children’s creativity at all levels and to bring together all the little animation artists, their mentors, professionals and animation lovers from Croatia and abroad.

Finally, this program will also include the screening of films created as part of the film workshop for children and youth in Kraljevica. These workshops are organized by the Croatian Film Club’s Association and they are conceived as part of the prize for the winners of the Kids Film Festival in Croatia – that is, the authors of the ten of the best films from the festival are awarded a ten-day stay in Kraljevica and the participation at the workshops. The idea is to also conceive similar awards for the best films at the Youth Film Festival.
 
After all these programs, the first festival day will end with a big dose of music and fun! Starting at 22.30 pm, Made in Taiwan, a young band from Karlovac, plan to entertain all the visitors at Zorin dom till very late!

We invite you all to join us and inaugurate with us the latest edition of the YFF and FRFF in Karlovac!

9. 9. 2010