From the YFF to the stars!
The tradition of the “Previous Laureates of the Youth Film Festival and FRFF - Where Are They Now?” program continues this year as well. We try to track the further professional development of high school filmmakers with this program in some ways. Some end up as filmmakers, while others take a different, equally successful path. This year we would like to present editor Tomislav Stojanović and animator Vjekoslav Živković as previous laureates.
Tomislav Stojanović was born in 1991. While attending high school in Županja, he worked on a number of short documentaries at the SKIG Multimedia Center. He has obtained an MA in Film and TV Editing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. He has also attended various sound design and film editing workshops (the "Dr. Ante Peterlić" School of Media Culture, workshops in film editing sound design and audio post-production, as well as cinematography; European Film Currents, Lodz, PRO Otok, Focus...)
During his studies, he won several editing awards at international short film festivals. He is a member of the Croatian Society of Film Workers as a film editor and the Croatian Freelance Association. In addition to film editing, his professional interests include color grading, digital cinema mastering and advisory work in post-production.
A disproportionately large number of Gunja locals affiliated with SKIG managed to enroll in the Academy of Dramatic Art, especially considering that it is such a small village in Slavonia. The full credit for this should go to our mentor, Mr. Josip Krunić... The Festival, where the films were screened, definitely served as additional motivation for highschoolers. In our eyes, it was like applying to Cannes itself. That hectic high school experience prepared us for the world of work: there is a deadline you have to meet when making a film, then you submit it and hope it is good enough to be selected for the competition. I believe the Festival was indispensable in forcing us to finish what we've started, to take responsibility for our work, to get a feel of the audience and its reactions, as well as giving us the opportunity to see what it's like to see our work on the silver screen. The festival ranks among the top five reasons why I became a professional filmmaker.
Nebojša Slijepčević on working with Tomo:
"Tomo and I work together exceptionally quickly and efficiently. When it comes to the decisions inherent to the creative process, we agree 90%. of the time, so we don't waste precious time on needless arguments. Still, those rare moments when we do disagree are the most valuable to me. Tomo is very clear and persistent in expressing his opinions. He makes me work hard to convince him of my point of view, doesn't back down easily and always makes a firm, well-thought out argument.Therefore, no matter who prevails in the end, we can be sure that it was the right decision for the film. Thanks to those creative differences, we are able to get, with no false modesty, some top-notch results.“
Vjekoslav Živković a degree in Animated Film and New Media from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. He has made several animated shorts ("Anomija"/"Anomia", "Evo što pričaju mornari..."/"The Stories Sailors Tell", "Tišina mora"/"The Silence of the Sea", "Lovac i kralj"/"The Hunter and the King", "Come On", etc.) He began working as a freelance animator in 2006. Since then he has worked on commercials and music videos, computer games and animated shorts. In 2012, he began working for the London-based company Enabling Genius as a director, animation supervisor and production organizer on various educational animated children’s TV series ("Little Poets", "Phonics School", "The Secret Order of the Digraphs"). In 2014, he joined the Zagreb-based Recircle studio's creative team, contributing to the development of several interactive applications and games aimed at children, as well as other similar projects. In 2015, one of his applications ("The Adventures of Misho and Robin") was turned into a TV show, "Misho and Robin" (30x5) and distributed by Monster Entertainment, of Ireland. The show is currently airing in Slovenia, South Korea, India, the US, Mexico and China, as well as Croatia.
Vjekoslav has fostered an interest in film and animation since his high school days, co-founding the Karlovac High School Video Club with a group of fellow-enthusiasts, led by their then-Croatian language teacher Damir Jelić. This is where he made his first films, submitting them to various youth film festival. The same group of enthusiasts then went on to co-found the Karlovac Cinema Club in 2002, in order to continue making films together even after graduation. The CFA's film festivals provided the ideal opportunity for young Croatian film buffs to hang out, watch films, exchange experiences and meet new people. Together with Marija Ratković, Vjekoslav is the co-founder of the Youth Film Festival (since 2007) and the Four River Film Festival (since 2008), which have continually taken place in Karlovac in their current form ever since.