INTRODUCING THE UPCOMING FESTIVAL!
This year's 53rd ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL will be held from Monday May 27 to Saturday June 1 in Zlín and in many other cities in the Czech Republic.
This year's 53rd ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL will be held from Monday May 27 to Saturday June 1 in Zlín and in many other cities in the Czech Republic. The supporting program, however, will commence at the beginning of April.
According to the organizers, 260 films will be screened during the course of the festival. The total number of films includes animated, acted and combined movies. They will consist of films of various footage and focus (kids/teens/young people on the threshold of adulthood/adults). The most important non-competitive section will be Days of Danish Cinema. Zlín's upcoming film festival will bring a number of supporting events. This year ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL wants to prepare at least eight dozen of them. The first will be the exhibition of the project Minisalon-Film Clapperboards in Prague's Hybernia Theatre. The opening will take place here on April 4, 2013.
As of this year, ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL has a new general partner. It is the company ENAPO OBCHODNÍ a.s., a chain of retail stores.
"The rejuvenated staff is a guarantee that the 53rd festival will spark energy, sprit and creativity," says Executive Director of the organizing company, Zdeněk Skaunic. "Although tradition and our world renown slightly predispose us to a conservative approach, especially in the competitive part of the film festival, we want to be bold in the non-competitive sections, especially the supporting program! Believe me when I tell you that, in the world of today's tight budgets, it is not easy to keep up with the dynamically developing festivals being held abroad. Thanks to trips made by our dramaturges, who many festivals have invited to sit in juries, we have a good general view of the world of festivals."
WHAT NEW THINGS IS THE 53RD FESTIVAL BRINGING?
Under the leadership of a woman. This year's film program is being prepared by a team led by Markéta Pášmová. She was appointed Program Director after Petr Koliha, Artistic Director, film director, producer and educator, left ZFF after many successful years of the festival. Markéta Pášmová has been working for ZFF since 1999, but had worked with the festival even before that as an extern. She can thus draw upon the experience she's gained from working with various program bosses. One of the most remarkable was Pavel Melounek, who has unfortunately passed away. He supervised the festival's film program prior to Petr Koliha.
Expanding open-air events. The summer cinema has been part of ZFF since time immemorial. In recent years, the location of outdoor summer projections has been the grassy slope below the House of Arts, which will soon again become a monument to Tomáš Baťa. This generous space on the vast T.G. Masaryk Square can hold several thousand people. In order to shorten the time that visitors to the open-air cinema have to wait to see a film, the ZFF organizers came up with the idea to include concerts prior to the film screenings. The variety of genres of Waiting for Darkness is extensive and is drawing the interest of young people in particular. This year, ZFF is coming with another expansion of the open-air program. In addition to the concerts and screenings, the space in the lowest part of the slope is going to contain a festival party tent, in which visitors can continue after the conclusion of an outdoor film screening until the early morning hours. The tent will be open daily from 4 p.m. and its program will consist of musical performances by bands, DJs, thematic social events, and happenings (such as the creation of graffiti).
And a continuously expanding segment for experts called FILM INDUSTRY. The ambition of the ZFF organizers, who are from Zlín's film environment, is that Zlín's festival become significant also due to meetings of filmmakers and film professionals. In recent years the informal gatherings have been turning more and more into meetings on filmmaking and the film industry. The section FILM INDUSTRY will also provide a remarkable program this year. Workshops, seminars, and even master-class lectures have been planned. Journalists can also look forward to a colorful week in Zlín. ZFF will continue its tradition of preparing a special program focused first and foremost on meetings with special personalities, e.g. foreign and Czech actors, filmmakers, TV staff and other experts in the field of audiovisual media.
Zlín Dog and Rainbow Marble are unquestionably under the wing of the ZFF. After many years of the Zlín Dog student festival and Rainbow Marble competition and conference circling around the ZFF like satellites around a globe, there is a final conclusion to the story. Both projects have become a fixed part of the ZFF. Zlín Dog will continue to be engaged in student film productions, but will attract the attention of a number of professionals – most assuredly of (film) headhunters, mainly from the real of television. Rainbow Marble is continuing with its format of workshops, with film marketing in the lead role, and had a lot of success with this at last year's ZFF. Zlin Dog is becoming one of the competitive categories. For the record: young creators will be battling in Zlín Dog for the special prize of € 1,000.
Young Star. A new section presenting films starring young, fresh, yet very talented actors and filmmakers.
A Thousand and One Nights. This new non-competitive section will present fairytales and their film adaptations. This year during Days of Danish Cinema there will be a program consisting of adaptations of works by the Danish master Hans Christian Andersen.
Specialties of the supporting program:
- An exhibition of the prominent photographer Paul Dias in honor of his 75th birthday,
- The Pavement of Fame of film stars – another two tiles dedicated to performers of child roles in films, Marek Eben and Sandra Nováková (for their participation),- full-day programs in the central town square of Zlín will be extended until Saturday June 1 when A Day with Czech Radio will take place (a concert by Lenka Dusilová)
Jurors: Among others, the well-known Slovak actress Danica Jurčová has promised to take part, as well as director Pavel Jandourek, holder of a Golden Slipper for animated film – director, animator and author of one of this year's clapperboards, Joroslav Nykl.
Foreign figures. Zlín FILM FESTIVAL's Grand Prix holder is the prominent Canadian producer and former director of the Montreal Film Festival, Rock Demers.