Again, during the creation of all Festival events this year, special attention was given to encourage many children and young people to participate in the 63rd Pula Film Festival. The film programmes specially designed for children and young people, Pulica and Dizalica (Crane), will screen a total of 11 films and the workshops Professor Baltazar’s Adventure Lab for children and RED for youth will be enriched with new content. A round table will be organised on the topic of "How important is it to show films for children and youth in supporting programmes of film festivals?" In order to further strengthen the need and offer for such content on the festival scene in Croatia. Young people will be able to actively participate in the Festival even through the Film Critic of young cinephiles and gain valuable experience as part of the volunteer crew.
Through the film programme Pulica, contemporary Croatian, European and world feature and animated feature-length and short films intended for children as well as adults will be screened. These are films that have excelled at numerous festivals of film for children and young people and that open the door to unknown cultures and colourful film expressions. The Pulica Programme is particularly important because it lays the foundation for watching alternative, less commercial film content which children are exposed to on a daily basis. Through this programme, Pula Film Festival raises its future festival audience. Both children and parents have recognised the quality and the need for Pulica which is proven every year by Pulica screenings being filled to capacity.
The Traditional Professor Baltazar’s Adventure Lab opens its doors to curious children for the twelfth time this summer. Animated films that were created last year by the participants of Baltazar became the official image of the ECFTA - European Children's Film Association. The ECFTA Managing Board, including its member Tanja Miličić, also a member of our Arts Council, will hold this year’s meeting in Pula. This year the youngest generation of creators, through independent decision-making, suggesting ideas and ultimately practical work, will create their own animated film in a seven-day workshop and experience the premiere of their work on the big screen in the same week. As in previous years, the adventurous duo of mentors, Manuel Šumberac and Vibor Juhas will guide them through an unforgettable adventure.
Programme Dizalica (Crane), successfully launched at the 61st Pula Film Festival, is especially designed for young film lovers whose age could be defined as older adolescents and young adults, therefore, youth aged 16-21 years. Films are chosen according to the target age group with quality in mind, but also the subject they deal with such as the problems of growing up, friendship, first loves, and relationships with parents, etc. As a key component of the 63rd Festival is women as film authors, three out of six films in this year's programme Dizalica deal with girls growing up, their sexuality and finding a place in society.
In cooperation with international companies RED and MYTHERAPY, this year a creative film workshop for young people RED has been organised which is designed in collaboration with Dado Valentić the founder of the Mytherapy studio, the world's leading digital mastering company, with the support of the company Red Digital Cinema and Adobe. The main goal of this seven-day workshop is to show young people the latest achievements in the film industry and digital technology and thus discover the potential future stars of digital film making. With expert guidance of Nerme Mehadžić, participants will write and produce their own short film, record it by using RED DRAGON cameras, edit in the REDucation post-production studio and see their films on the big screen. All this at the level of professional film directors!
As part of the 63rd Festival a round table will be held on the topic "How important is it to show films for children and youth in supporting programmes of film festivals?" Pula Film Festival, one of the 10 oldest film festivals in the world and by far the oldest in Croatia, is organising a meeting for the third year in a row of the “most important” Croatian Film Festivals (Animafest, Avvantura FF, Film Forum Zadar, Croatian Film Days, Mediterranean Film Festival in Split, New film Festival Split, Festival of tolerance, Motovun Film Festival, Vukovar Film Festival, Zagreb DOX Zagreb, 25 FPS) with the aim of encouraging cooperation, discussions on common problems and highlight individual development plans. Without a doubt, this is one of the freshest and perhaps currently the most important topic on the Croatian festival scene. The meeting in Pula will allow the festival organisers and artistic directors to share their experiences in working with children and young people, to share the educational elements of their programmes, the method of selection of films and it will serve as a basis for future development to those festivals that are still exploring this area and are thinking about opening their doors to these very important future viewers. The representatives of the ECFTA - European Children's Film Association) will be present in Pula as support to highlight the importance of developing new audiences.
The schedule of all festival events can be found HERE and the schedule of the press screenings and press conferences can be found HERE.
