Journeys of Slovenian Films between March and May

21. April 2013

In March and April quite a few film festivals are taking place in various cities in the United States, where Slovenian films are also screened regularly. The 37th instalment of the International Film Festival took place in Cleveland between 3 and 14 April.

Shanghai Gypsy by the director Marko Naberšnik has qualified for the competition programme of fifteen films from Central and Eastern Europe. The co production film Halima's Path by the Croatian director Arsen Anton Ostojić, represented in Slovenia by the producer Studio Arkadena and supported financially by the Slovenian Film Centre, has also qualified for this programme. The film was co produced by Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At this festival, Slovenian films are also represented in the competition programme of documentary films, for which the full length documentary The Long Vacation by the director Damjan Kozole has also qualified. This is the North American premiere of the documentary about "The Erased".

The 17th Kansas City Film Festival took place between 10 and 14 April. Here the Slovenian film Bread and Circuses by Klemen Dvornik, the discovery of the 2011 Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož and this year's winner of the Victor Award for Best Live Action TV Show or Film, was also screened. On 9 April this feature was also shown in our vicinity, at the Permanent Slovenian Theatre in Trieste, where film evenings are organised in order to bring together Slovenian films and actors from the Trieste theatre appearing in these films. The screenings are followed by the discussions with the makers of the films, and after Bread and Circuses was shown the screenwriter Jaša Sketelj and actress Tjaša Horvat appeared.

On 16 April the film A Trip will be shown, and the director Nejc Gazvoda and actor Luka Cimprič will present themselves. On 23 April the first presentation of new Slovenian films at the Trieste theatre will conclude with the Trieste premiere of the film Good Night, Missy, attended by the director Metod Pevec and actress Polona Juh. All of the films are shown with Italian subtitles. The project was organised by the Trieste Theatre, Slovenian Embassy in Trieste, and Slovenian Film Centre.
The newest film by Metod Pevec Tango Abrazos, the winner of the Vesna Award for Best Direction at the most recent Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož, soon to be shown in the Slovenian cinemas, has also appeared at an American festival already: on 22 and 24 March it was screened at the 16th Festival of European Union in Chicago, at the prestigious Gene Siskel Film Center. Another film appearing at this festival was also partially Slovenian – a co production film Parade by Srdjan Dragojević.
The Slovenian short film Who's Afraid of the Big Black Wolf?, a black and white homage to the history of Slovenian film directed by Janez Lapajne, will also be shown on the American continent in April: it has qualified for the short film competition programme of the Nashville International Film Festival, whose winners automatically qualify for the Academy Awards. Before this the short was also shown in the short film competition programme of the film festival in Vilnius, one of the most important film and cultural events in Lithuania. Here another Slovenian film, Hundred Dogs by Jan Cvitkovič, was also shown among 25 short films. The next stop for Who's Afraid of the Big Black Wolf? will be the Busan Short Film Festival in South Korea, where it will be shown as a part of the competition programme on 2 May.

On 15 April the 3rd Beijing International Film Festival is starting on the Asian continent, where 246 films will be shown in 28 cinemas. Here Shanghai Gypsy, whose world sales were taken over by the distribution and production company Breakthrough Entertainment from Toronto after its screening at the Berlin market, will be screened in the International Panorama programme on 16 April.
Between 11 and 25 April, the 20th Days of European Film are taking place in Prague and Brno. Slovenia will be represented by three films: the feature A Trip in the section of the best European films from the last two years, the documentary My Name is Janez Janša by the director Janez Janša in the documentaries for the big screen section, and In the Year of Hip Hop by the director Boris Petković in the music and film section. More than 4000 tickets had been sold before the festival even began, showing that the Czech viewers trust the selection of films at this festival.