170 films, 88 premieres, 20 venues, 15 film programmes - these are the numbers of this year’s abundant, 64th edition of Pula Film Festival, and everybody is eagerly waiting for the opening ceremony.  

Festival director Gordana Restović and artistic director Zlatko Vidačković announced the novelties of the 64th edition of the Festival. Restović spoke about the new Pula Film Festival app, which allows visitors to keep informed about the many events of the Festival at any time, buy tickets, and vote for the best film and win a prize in doing so. “Seeing how the audience is the biggest star of the Festival, they’re in for a surprise at the Arena tonight. They will be able to go through a big box and have their grainy image appear on the big screen,” Restović said.

The opening ceremony will kick off on the red carpet outside the Arena, at 8.30 p.m., and will welcome the guests of the Festival, film crews, officials and the Festival Directing Board. The red carpet will be hosted by Jelena Vitasović and Davor Garić. Then it will be time to start the opening ceremony at the Arena at 9.30 p.m., hosted by Iva Šulentić and Ivan Vukušić, with official opening by the Minister of Culture Nina Obuljen Koržinek. The film The Avalanche by Stanislav Tomić will have the honour to open the 64th Pula Film Festival.

The 64th Pula Film Festival will present the most extensive Croatian Programme yet, with 16 feature films, of which half are premieres. It is interesting that half of the films were made as independent productions, and the other half through public calls of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), bearing witness to the liveliness and resilience of the independent scene, which HAVC luckily assists with subsequent post-production supports.

In his search for films, Zlatko Vidačković has visited film festivals in Berlin, Rome, Jerusalem, and Sarajevo, which resulted in the most extensive International Programme of Pula Film Festival, with 27 feature films (directed by Kaurismakij, Lee, Tornatore, Wajda and other eminent directors), and 19 short films. “A great novelty in the programme is that the competition programme for Short Pula also includes drama series, as they do at Cannes, as drama series have reached the level of film with their quality,” Vidačković said. There are also documentary series and trailers for feature films, etc.

This year as well, the Festival abounds in events in its side programme - exhibitions, concerts, workshops, Pula Food Festival, as well as a specialised programme for film professionals, Pula PROfessional, which will present lectures, round tables, panel discussions, book promotions and meetings of professionals in the audiovisual industry.

The longest-running and largest national film festival is unique in another aspect: it has the largest festival screen in Croatia, where more than 10 thousand people will be able to enjoy Festival premieres under the stars from 15 to 22 July at the Arena.