From 11th till 15th of September ‘the four rivers town’ Karlovac becomes the world center of the high school film making. This year’s films are coming from 50 different countries so The Youth Film Festival and Four River Film Festival will screen a number of films from ‘Ganges to Kupa river’.
The Youth Film Festival is, as the name suggests, the national festival of high school film and is therefore a central place for Croatian high school film production. Up to 2007, the festival moved from town to town for 12 consecutive years until Cinema Club Karlovac got the privilege to host it from then on.
Since 2008, Cinema Club Karlovac and Croatian Film Association organize the Four River Film Festival which is the festival’s international counterpart. Being an international festival of high school film makes it unique not only in Croatia but also in the whole region. The only criterion for application is the high school status of the author.
The following week, film screen in Karlovac will be showing the best of Croatian and world high school cinematography. Almost 1,000 films have been received this year and 76 titles will be included in competition program, 38 foreign and 38 Croatian films. Three jury members will decide about the best ones: young director Barbara Vekarić, American director Rick Stevenson and young editor and longtime friend of the festival Nikola Janković from Serbia.
It’s important to point out two workshops that will be held as part of this year’s festival „Work in progress“ and „Pack & Pitch“, that came as a result of cooperation with talented American filmmaker Hadley Hillel. Hadley is one of the biggest ambassadors of Festivals in the USA, and thanks to him Croatian festivals started collaborating with the National Festival of Talented Youth in L.A. and All American Film Festival in New York.
These amazing festivals have a lot of accompanying events, so it’s the best if you check the program yourself. However, you shouldn’t miss it!
