22 Slovenian Film Festival kicks off

22 September Slovenian Film Festival begins, with the premiere of the new feature film directed by Method Pevec „I am Frank” (Jaz sem Frank). The opening ceremony will be co-hosted by an actor and journalist Jure Longyka, music will be provided by popular coastal singer-songwriter Rudi Bučar, followed by a reception in the Auditorium lobby. Festival honoring this year's Badjur Award winner Andrei Zdravic at the opening ceremony and spinning his short film „A Journey of the Sand“(Popotovanje peska).

Festival director Jelka Stergel noted that there will be many world Slovenian premieres at the festival this year and that "compared to last year, there is a noticeable thematic shift from social drama to more politically engaged drama, which borders on a political thriller." This year, the section of minority co-productions is also greatly enhanced, which "shows that Slovenian producers are very good at selecting films that should be financially and creatively supported."

The main event of this year's professional program will be the co-production meeting Focus: Italy, in which we will try to encourage the co-production cooperation between the two countries through the pitching of selected projects in post-production and which has already borne many fruits in recent years. Among other events of the professional program, Jelka Stergel particularly highlighted this year's pitching of Slovenian book proposals for film producers at a press conference.

22nd FSF Project Manager Tjaša Smrekar highlighted as a major novelty of this year's FSF the live television broadcast of the closing ceremony with the award ceremony, which will be broadcast on Sunday, September 22 by RTV Slovenia.

The main Slovenian film event will offer an overview of the selected Slovenian film in a week productions of feature, documentary and animated films of all lengths. In careful program review Slovenian Film  Commission received 157 applications, and 106 films were included in the official program of the festival, 57 of which competition program: 11 feature films, 10 minority co-productions (8 feature films and 2 short films), 5 mid-length, 18 short and 13 study films.

At the beginning of the festival, the Slovenian Film Center, in collaboration with film professional associations, awards the Method Badjure Award for the lifetime work of a filmmaker named after the pioneer of documentary filmmaking. A few days after the festival, the award-winning films are also presented at re-screenings in Ljubljana, from last year at the Komuna Cinema.

The Festival of Slovenian Film (FSF) is an overview of the new audiovisual production which ends with the awarding of awards for the most prominent achievements and creators. The festival is the successor of the Celje Domestic Film Week, founded in the 1970s, which after its independence was renamed the Slovenian Film Marathon and moved to Portorož, and then took over its current title the following year. The Slovenian Film Festival is a cultural and professional event that brings together filmmakers, the professional public, business partners and film lovers. It is an annual meeting where, for five consecutive days, a fresh production of feature, documentary, animated, feature, medium, and short films takes place. After the films have been broadcast, press conferences are held in the presence of many filmmakers; The festival's professional program is receiving increasing emphasis through thematic conferences, international film workshops and a co-production meeting focusing on a partner country, Italy this year. The festival concludes with the Vesna Awards Ceremony. Vesna symbolizes the popularity of the heroine from the legendary film of the same name, directed by František Čap in 1955. The Czech director today represents one of the pillars of the history of Slovenian film and is a shining example of the European cultural connection and openness of Slovenian film production. The festival connects new approaches of the young generation of authors with the tradition of big names in Slovenian film history, which is increasingly linked to European filmmaking.