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Motovun : New Festival |
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A new festival is set to rise in the east. The Motovun International Film Festival (as it will be called) is being organised in tandem with the Soros-funded Imaginary Film Academy, which was set up by Rajko Grlic five years ago. It is scheduled to take place over four days in August in Groznjan, Istria. Festival programmers are in Berlin scouting for appropriate titles for what they hope will become "a kind of Sundance of Central Europe". |
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The organisers are promising a Croatian Panorama, a documentary section, a Dutch Retrospective, a series of midnight films and some major international guests. John Boorman is tipped to attend with his Cannes success, The General. Screenings will be held, Locarno-style, in the town square. "The idea is to bring directors and stars to Istria, who will then meet with the students," Grlic told Moving Pictures. The festival, he stressed, will also provide a showcase for the students' work. "The students are already young professionals, not straight out of film school. They are the cream of young Eastern European film-makers." Members of the new festival board include Tom Luddy from the Telluride Festival, Leo Hannewijk, Rosa Bosch, Mike Downey (publisher of Moving Pictures), Dusan Makvejev (Mysteries of the Organism) and Ademir Kenovic (Perfect Circle). The managing director of the event will be producer Boris T Matic. The Istrian regional government is to provide funding. Geoffrey Macnab |