Pula PRO for film professionals: Four pitching programmes, discussions, and strengthening the film community
This year’s Pula Film Festival presents a comprehensive and interesting Pula PRO programme aimed at film professionals and film students with as many as four pitching programmes to professional juries and Pula Film Forum focusing on the visibility of domestic film and enhancing distribution strategies. Pula PRO will run in the second part of the Festival, from 15 to 18 July, and will host a number of domestic and international film industry professionals. The programme will be run by Selma Mehadžić, a producer with extensive experience in festival production, film distribution and cinema exhibition.
DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING OF PROJECTS
This part of Pula Pro is intended for the development and marketing of projects, and consists of several different and specialised pitching programmes. The aim is to provide film professionals with an opportunity to present their projects to professional juries, as well as to secure support for further development of projects in the form of workshops, monetary and production prizes.
The Work in Progress programme is intended for Croatian and minority feature projects that are planned to be finished within a year. The jury, composed of Nicola Marzano (film selector and producer), Alen Mutinić (artistic director of Mediterranean Film Festival Split) and Milan Stojanović (producer), will decide on the best projects to receive three prizes: 6,000 EUR cash prize awarded by Brijuni Rivijera; postproduction audio processing in the amount of 10,000 EUR, awarded by the Czech studio Sleepwalker; and picture and sound processing in the amount of 3,000 EUR, awarded by the Slovenian company Teleking. Eight projects have been selected for the pitching, and will be in the workshop programme to prepare their presentations under the mentorship of producer Ena Rahelić, head of Industry – Meeting Point at Vilnius International Film Festival.
List of projects for Work in Progress:
Dust in the Showcase, directed by Daniel Pavlić, Something Larger Than Me, directed by Danilo Šerbedžija, Under the Apple Tree, directed by Lucija Brkić, Honey Bunny, directed by Igor Jelinović, Southern Wind, directed byAnte Marin, People in My House, directed by Tatjana Božić, No Offence, directed by Lucija Marčec, and Good Children, directed by Filip Peruzović.
Screenplay of a Blockbuster is a programme motivated by the need for projects equally attractive to festival, niche, and general audiences. This pitching was open only to Croatian majority productions of all types, and nine selected projects will be presented to to the three-member jury, composed of Goran Stolevski (director), Tena Štivičić (playwright), and Ines Žuljević (head of distribution, Blitz). The best project will receive a cash prize in the amount of 10,000 EUR, awarded in cooperation with the distribution company Blitz and Croatian Audiovisual Centre. All selected finalists will be able to participate in the workshop programme to prepare for their presentations under the mentorship of producer Vanja Jambrović.
List of projects for Screenplay of a Blockbuster:
Evan & Hm by Mia Pećina Drašković, Bambina by Ana Tonković, The Countdown to Christmas by Bruno Mustić and Voja Lepojević, Pijetao koji je pao s neba by Višnja Skorin, Once Upon a Time in Split by Mladen Stanić, Season by Katarina Radetić and Andrej Korovljev, Štrigun by Goran Dukić, Projekt Palma by Daria Stilin, and Trebat ćemo veći brod by Igor Šeregi.
Pula Film Festival presented its first international worksop and pitching programme Make the Scene! this year in cooperation with the media company United Media. The programme is aimed at developing TV series screenplays, and the submitted projects were from Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, and Austria. The first module was held online, and Greek screenwriter Nicos Panayotopoulos has already worked with the six selected projects. A workshop programme will be held in person during the Festival, as well as the pitching to the jury composed of Nataša Buljan (Group Fiction Development Director at United Media), Miroslav Mogorović (producer), and Goran Bogdan (actor). The best project will receive a 10,000 EUR prize and an opportunity to develop the project further with the media company United Media.
List of projects for Make the Scene!:
Deconstruction (Bulgaria) – Plamena Velkovsky, To The Movies! (Bulgaria) – Kristian Stoichev, Boris Rachev and Boris Krastin, You Have to Live Somewhere (Croatia) – Sanja Milardović, Rainbow (Serbia) – Srđan Anđelić, Wonderful (Serbia) – Isidora Veselinović, Katarina Mitrović and Vladimir Tagić, Dert (Serbia) – Katarina Krstić
TV HIT is a new pitching programme that has been established with the goal of allowing authors of Croatian TV projects an additional opportunity to present their projects at the Festival and get support for further development. The selected projects of all genres and formats (fiction, documentary, youth formats) intended for TV broadcasting, will be presented to editors of national broadcasting companies, and the authors of selected projects will be invited to take part in the workshop programme to prepare for their presentations. Members of the jury: Zrinka Jankov (Nova TV), Nana Šojlev (HRT), and Ana Bižić (RTL).
List of projects TV HIT:
Pineapples, Advertising, and a Few Grams by Nevio Marasović, Mišolovka za dva glumca by Goran Kulenović, Countersteering by Aldo Tardozzi, Lijepe naše by Nataša Dangubić and Zrinka Šamija, Street Witches by Ivana Šerić and Sara Škrlec, Naša posla by Andrija Mardešić, In the Name of the Father by Ines Pletikos, and For a Fistful of Nothing by Jasna Nanut.
PULA FILM FORUM
The main goal of Pula Film Forum is to strengthen the dialogue and exchange of professional knowledge within the audiovisual community by organising meetings, talks and panels for the representatives of the audiovisual community to present quality practices and positive trends in distribution, marketing, and promotion of Croatian and regional films. Our intention is to create a framework for quality discussion that will enable the identification of current issues, but also potential solutions.
Round table: Is there life after the premiere?
It is more and more common that Croatian and independent projects go into national distribution with a lack of dates and cinemas, which negatively impacts the overall number of viewers. The lack of repertoire cinemas in Zagreb is also one of the burning issues in the audiovisual community. For all these reasons, many are pointing to the importance of using the potential of the Croatian Independent Cinemas Network, which gathers some 50 independent cinemas. Is it possible to design an evaluation system (numerical and programme criteria, financial stimulation) that would encourage the members of the network to programme Croatian and independent films to a greater extent? Can multiplexes be included in solving this problem by ensuring a specialised screen? This round table will focus on these issues, with participation from representatives of the Croatian Independent Cinemas Network, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, multiplexes, and distributers of Croatian and independent films.
Round table: One for all – Croatian film at international festivals
Over the last few years, we have seen great success of Croatian film at international festivals. To what extent does the success of a film open the doors to an entire film industry, and are there mechanisms to ensure greater visibility and marketing of Croatian film? Small film industries certainly aspire to finding a way to the competition programmes of big festivals, but in what way can they compete with big countries and more developed film industries? What are the strategies, and are there trends and themes we can use to secure better presence and visibility? Is the presence of international selectors in Croatia necessary for a better experience and understanding of the film industry? We will try to answer these, and many other questions, and to identify the quality practices at this round table, with participation from selectors of A list festivals and Croatian authors who have experience in international marketing of their films.
Forum organised by Croatian Filmmakers and Producers Guild: Price of Passion
How does passion for film, that we as authors are inevitably ‘infected with’, impact our mental health and existence, and consequently our creative expression and filmmaking as such? A comparison of working conditions in the film industries of other EU countries. Is it possible to ensure the existence of authors and other right holders through collective management of copyright, and what are the common problems that colleagues from similar organisations in the region are facing? What is the price of passion for filmmaking, how can we improve the position and working conditions of authors, and at the same time strengthen the Croatian film industry so that it can compete on equal terms on the European market?
AWARD OF THE CROATIAN INDEPENDENT CINEMAS NETWORK
The Croatian Independent Cinemas Network Award, established last year at Pula Film Festival, presented by the representatives of independent cinemas to the best Croatian film, and is aimed highlighting the project with the biggest potential for cinema distribution and supporting its promotion with the audience. The three-member jury, composed of representatives of cinema exhibitors Maja Holek (Open University Koprivnica), Jelena Sviričić (Art-kino Arsen, Šibenik), and Nataša Šimunov (Valli Cinema, Pula), will present the award to a film in the international programme as well. The awarded films will receive prizes as incentive to future film distribution in the form of ensuring advertising space and a minimal number of cinemas within the Croatian Independent Cinema Network in the first week of distribution. With this cooperation with the Croatian Independent Cinemas Network, Pula Film Festival seeks to contribute to quality communication and cooperation between cinema exhibitors and distributers, and provide a concrete example to impact further positive practices in film distribution.
STUDENT PROGRAMME
Pula Film Festival will present a selection of Croatian student films in its film programme, complemented by educational and discursive activities aimed at providing its student audience with better networking opportunities and the chance to acquire new knowledge and practices. This year, the industry programme Pula PRO will feature a conversation with directors Daina Oniunas-Pusić (Tuesday, Popular Pula programme) and Goran Stolevski (Housekeeping for Beginners, Main Minority Co-productions Programme), moderated by students Noa Nikolić and Tibor Vukelić. Daina and Goran will share their experiences working in American, British, and Australian productions, distributing films with prestigious American distributors such as A24 and Universal (Focus Features), and how growing up and/or being educated in Croatia and North Macedonia influenced their artistic development.
