Cinema Valli, 16.7. at 12:00
Script Your Hit is aimed at projects in development that successfully combine authorial and commercial sensibilities. The programme is a result of the need for projects that are equally attractive to festival, niche, and general audiences. This pitching is open only to Croatian majority productions of all types that have not yet received approval for production funds from the Croatian Audiovisual Center or other film funds. The selected projects will be presented to the three-member jury, and 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.
MENTOR: Vanja Jambrović
Vanja Jambrović (Zagreb, 1980) graduated in Comparative Literature and Philosophy from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and in production from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. Since 2009, she has worked as producer at Restart, an association specialised in documentary film. The documentary films she produced have won more than 150 awards at international film festivals and were preselected for the European Film Award twice (Valerija, 2024, and Srbenka, 2019). Srbenka has won a total of 23 awards at film festivals, including the Doc Alliance Award. Her films have won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Film three times (Valerija, directed by Sara Jurinčić in 2024, Museum of the Revolution, directed by Srđan Keča in 2022, and Srbenka, directed by Nebojša Slijepčević in 2018). She was a part of international workshops for film producers REACT (2017), EAVE (2015), Producer on the Move in Cannes (2014), Emerging Producer in Jihlava (2012), and Eurodoc (2010). She
teaches two courses at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, and since 2022, she has been a mentor at the international workshop for developing feature-length documentary films for the international market, Documentary Campus Masterschool from Germany. She has been a guest lecturer at international documentary film workshops such as Ex Oriente, BDC Discoveries, and Circle Women Doc Accelerator.
JURY:
Goran Stolevski
Goran Stolevski has written and directed three features which have played at over 100 festivals worldwide. You Won’t Be Alone premiered in official competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, while Of an Age opened the 2022 Melbourne International Film Festival and Housekeeping for Beginners won the Queer Lion at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. Focus Features released all three films theatrically in the US to major critical acclaim, with Universal Pictures handling international distribution. Before shifting to features, Goran had made 25 shorts, with Would You Look at Her winning Best International Short at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and being selected for the Criterion Channel. Named one of Variety’s top 10 Directors to Watch in 2022, Goran’s also been profiled in the New York Times, the Guardian, Vogue and IndieWire. He’s repped by UTA.
Tena Štivičić
Tena Štivičić (1977), playwright, dramaturge, and writer. She graduated in dramaturgy from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb in 2001, and obtained her MA in writing for performance from Goldsmith’s College in London. Her debut play was Can’t Escape Sundays in 1999, with the plays Pssst! (2003), The Two of Us (2003), Fragile! (2005), Fireflies (2007), Europa (omnibus) (2013), Three Winters (2014). She has received a number of awards, including the Innovative Dramatic Text Award at the Heidelberg Stückemarkt 2008 for her play Fragile! and the Susan Smith Blackburn Award for Best Drama in 2015 for her play Three Winters, which had its premiere at the National Theatre in London and was directed by Howard Davies. She is also a columnist, and writes in English and Croatian. Since 2024, she has been Director of the Drama of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.
Ines Žuljević
Ines Žuljević is director of international theatrical distribution and film distribution expert with over 23 years of experience in planning, evaluating, budgeting, and distribution of studio films from major industry players such as Warner Bros. Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Studios, The Walt Disney Company, and for the biggest independent companies like MGM, LionsGate, Amblin, STX, Studio Canal and many others.
PROJECTS:
BAMBINA
Split in 1986. Young engineer Toni returns to Split and is hired by the shipyard to a responsible position of project manager for the construction of Bambina tanker. He has no previous experience and is faced with delays in material, strike threats, and blackmail. At the same time, his girlfriend Marijana, a high school senior doing her work experience at the shipyard, uncovers compromising documents. With hit songs by Neno Belan and his band Đavoli, the suspenseful story unfolds to the rhythm of the widely popular songs. As tensions rise, the workers and the young couple’s families side with Tonči. Will their love endure all obstacles and will Bambina put to sea towards the horizon in this exciting jukebox musical?
Ana Tonković was born in Zagreb, where she finished the Classical Gymnasium and graduated in dramaturgy from the Academy of Dramatic Art. As a playwright, author, and co-author, she has collaborated on more than 70 theatre plays, with some plays winning important awards and audience awards. She is the author of a collection of adaptations and dramatisations Prepričavanja, published by VBZ in 2008. Bambina is her first film project.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN SPLIT
Once Upon a Time in Split is a socially engaged, dark comedy crime thriller with elements of a neo-Western. It tells the story of corruption told through two antiheroes. Duje (30) is a young man raised on the margins of society he often fought with as a football supporter and a child from a dysfunctional family. Contrary to him, Jakov (40) is seemingly a model citizen who has made every compromise and leads an unbearably dull life. Duje and his friends rob a bank where Jakov works as a security guard. The robbery goes wrong and there is an avalanche of unfortunate circumstances that take them on a journey of revenge, greed, and money.
Writer/director Mladen Stanić and producer Danijel Popović graduated in directing and producing from the Academy of Dramatic Art and have made several awarded films together. They are currently finishing their new short film, developing two new series, and a project for a debut feature film. They are known for films such as White Room, A Small Detail, Ballheads, and Libero.
EVA & HM
The early teenage years are an especially challenging period of growing up. Numerous studies worldwide show a significant decline in children’s self-confidence, which later affects all aspects of their adult lives. Often, at this age, they also experience their first major loss — the death of a grandparent. Though the beginning of this film centres on such a difficult situation, the loss of a beloved grandfather, it evolves into a grand adventure shared by two friends who are alike yet so different. This adventure will teach them the values of family, friendship, sacrifice, resourcefulness, and responsibility.
The originator of the idea about a girl who accidentally ends up in the time of the Neanderthals is director Mladen Dizdar. Mladen is the author of numerous drama series, reality programs, and documentary projects worldwide. Most importantly, he has extensive experience working with children, which was a significant advantage during the making of this film. Screenwriter Branko Ružić is a multi-award-winning author of novels for children that have been adapted into plays or made into films.
THE COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS
My (maybe last) christmas has never been more intense at grandma Vjera’s house. Vjera is a widow who has spent the last three years alone, far away from her son who lives in Ireland with his family. Even though she is lonely, she is planning to celebrate Christmas in the comfort of her own home decorated with the best decorations. In a turn of events, amid her test results and her son being convinced she can no longer take care of herself, this Christmas seems to be the most interesting one in her life. And it also brings a completely unexpected friendship/animosity with Sara (23). This is a Christmas film for the cinema that aims to bring together all generations and make them smile.
Voja Lepojević is a creative strategist at the largest marketing agencies. His expertise is storytelling in creative strategies, and this project brings together his authorial ambitions and his marketing experience. Bruno Mustić is an awarded producer based in London. Bruno won the “Večernjakova ruža” Award in 2023 for a teen series, and is currently producing the hit drama series SKAM for Croatian Radiotelevision.
THE ROOSTER THAT FELL FROM THE SKY
On a lovely farm facing decay, there is a cockerel, Strahunac, who dreams of leaving and meeting the “Superkoka” – the hen from a commercial. He is taken by a hawk and embarks on an adventure. Running away from hunters, he gets stuck in cock fights. He is rescued by a hen, Roška, who joins him in his escape. While the cockerel resists true love and continues searching for the “superhen”, his friends from the farm start looking for him. After a series of unfortunate near misses, they find themselves at “Superkoka” – the processing plant! Luckily, his friends also come to their rescue. This animated family comedy has a happy end: the cockerel grows up fast, realises that home means family and friends, the farm is saved by truffles, and the bad guys go to prison.
Višnja Skorin (director and co-writer) is a film editor, screenwriter and director, as well as co-founder of 3D2D Animatori animation studio. She directed and edited documentary films and children’s TV series. Her film If Only Dreams Came True won the jury and audience award at Mediterranean Film Festival in 2019. She teaches editing at VERN University. Dijana Merdanović (writer) graduated in dramaturgy from the Academy of Dramatic Art. She is known for her screenplays for Chillin’, Nemoj nikome reći, Zaboravljena ljubav, Tko te šiša, Ne daj se Nin, Papar i sol, and many other projects.
PROJECT PALM
Lara urgently returns to her island home town when the mayor of the municipality decides to cut down a special palm tree. In an effort to stop this, Lara’s grandfather tied himself to the palm tree. Lara’s boss in Ireland gives her a week to resolve the situation and come back if she wants to keep the job, but she wants her stay to be as short as possible anyway, because she wants to avoid confrontation and inevitable complications with her ex-boyfriend. She has a chance of getting what she wants – for her grandfather to untie himself from the palm tree – but she has to accept the nomination for municipality mayor at the coming local elections.
Daria Stilin is a screenwriter and director, and graduated in screenwriting and business economics. She attended the following workshops: TorinoFilmLab, Talents Sarajevo, My First Script at Zagreb Film Festival, CineLink, European Showrunner Training, etc. She is a two-time NEM Zagreb winner. She has worked at Nova TV, writer for The Highlands (Antitalent, Croatian Radiotelevision), and is currently writing a TV series for Drugi plan/BetaFilm/ZDF.
SEASON
A group of discarded players, led by their coach, is saving a first-league football club from collapse. They have nothing in common except the desire to keep the club in the first league and find an investor to rescue them from the brink of bankruptcy. Everything is against them: debts, poor conditions, unpaid work, biased referees, and fraudulent investors. The players are aware they can only rely on each other and the inner spark driving them forward. Despite all obstacles, they reach the final match that will determine the outcome of the entire season.
Katarina Radetić studied film and television directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art. She is employed as a director at MedVid Production. Andrej Korovljev was born in 1970 in Pula. He studied film directing at the University of Westminster in London. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his films and is a member of the Association of Croatian Film Directors (DHFR).
STRIGON
Although the story is inspired by the legend of the vampire (štrigun) Jure Grando, who lived in the Istrian town of Kringa in the 17th century, Štrigun is not a classic horror film. Similar to how the French film Anatomy of a Fall uses elements of a crime film to explore the intimate relationship of a married couple, Štrigun will incorporate elements of comedy and horror to study the marital relationship of the main characters, Sandra and Clayne. In addition to Croatian and Italian, the film features English, as the guests at the Istrian estate where the story takes place come from various countries, using English to communicate. This linguistic choice broadens the film’s distribution potential and enhances its prospects of becoming a box office hit.
Goran Dukić graduated in film directing from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and earned a master’s degree from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. In addition to short films and the TV series Rest in Peace, he has directed three feature films: Kamikaze Pizza, Opsesija (Obsession), and Nosila je rubac črleni (She Wore a Red Scarf). Nina Petrović, from the Švenk production company, has many years of experience in producing commissioned films as well as short and feature-length fiction films, including Goran Dukić’s Nosila je rubac črleni (She Wore a Red Scarf).
WE’LL NEED A BIGGER SHIP
Robi (35) is a failed Croatian director. While making a documentary film about a Croatian island, he accidentally goes through a time portal and goes back to 1967. He decided to seize this opportunity and writes the screenplays for popular films made in the future.The Central Committee in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia rejects all of the screenplays (Star Wars, Titanic, Gladiator), except the one for Jaws. The film moves into shooting, but the Committee insists that the shark has to be from German waters and that it has to be killed by all six nations of the Republic at the same time. Robi realises that he is really making a Partisan film. While on set, all funds and equipment is taken by the film The Battle of Neretva, which is shooting nearby.
Igor Šeregi graduated in film and TV directing in Zagreb. He wrote a number of Croatian series and short film, and directed the sitcoms Tko te šiša and Mrkomir Prvi, as well as the drama series Metropolitanci. He directed the feature film ZG80, and is currently preparing his second feature Svadba.
