Time to agree
First five Festivals were held only in Zagreb, pioneer city, from 1962 until 1967. Then it was decided that the Festival should serve as a promotional tool for children's filmmaking and encouraging development of such in the areas where there was none before or where it was less active. Some of the hosts, alphabetically, were Bjelovar, Čakovec, Đakovo, Makarska, Nova Gradiška, Osijek, Pag, Poreč, Pregrada, Rijeka, Sesvete, Sikirevci, Sisak, Split, Šibenik, Varaždin, Virovitica and Zadar. In some places like Zagreb, Čakovec, Pag, Kutina, Varaždin, Zadar... Festival was held two or more times.
It is important to remember that at the end of 53rd Festival that is slowly behind us. While we leave Rijeka that was hosting the festival for the first time almost three decades ago (and we hope it will host it again in few years), older participants are retelling their memories and younger participants are more or less carefully listening. It is good to learn something from the ones that have been through it again and it is equally as important to get own knowledge and paths. It is important to listen to Vera Robić Škarica, who is working on the Festival from its early beginnings and still today and is uniting rich experiences of the past and willingness to explore and accept the new, present and future.
At a meeting of mentors of school film groups and clubs with the organizers of the Festival, some questions were left unanswered. It should be decided will the Festival, starting with the 55th and on, still be held separately or will the again be fused with high school Festival. Will they keep traveling or will they be connected to one place and should the award system be kept this was or switch back to the old one – ten best works without ranking amongst them, or should some third model be found. Will the Festival be held at the end of a school year, during the summer break or at the beginning of a school year. Each solution has its pros and cons. Decisions have to be made, mainly for the children who will continue working on their films, so Croatian Film Association and its partners have to decide.
Festival was really all about children, first of all, about the authors of shown films, not only winning ones but all that contributed making the Festival greater. It is important to mention little announcers from Rijeka (girls in chosen dresses, boys, casual, sporty) that announced even in English, fourteen films on average in each series. We should mention everyone that wondered around hallways of Art-cinema Croatia with the 'do not disturb, I'm doing something important' look on their face, as well as participants that had questions for the jury at the very end. There were classic questions like 'why our film didn't win' as well as some more complex questions that made jury think. Some asked how to become a successful in the film world and got a whole bunch of answers with the love of film and hard work as the main theme, others were interested if you have to study film to be a film maker. Answer was that academic knowledge is very valuable but not necessary because you can't teach talent. Others wanted to know how to make the transition from amateurism to professionalism in film. We knew that most young filmmakers had future Oscar winners in them!
Next, 54th Croatian Children's Film Festival will be held in Makarska that will host it for the second time. After that...?
Duško Popović
popovicdusko@yahoo.com
05.10.2015.