Christopher Walken at the 2005 Dubrovnik Film Festival

Dubrovnik Film Festival

By Rada Djurica

The city of Dubrovnik in Croatia is the perfect place for festivals, with a very long festival tradition. In ex-Yugoslavia, this lovely little town was most famous for its festivals. "Freedom is not to be sold even for all the gold in the world," states the sign at the entrance of Lovrijenac, the monumental, self-supported fortress, raised upon a rock that is 37 meters high, above Dubrovnik Old Town. The fortress dates back to the 14th Century. Within Dubrovnik's walls is a marvelous film festival of celebrities and film art.



“…And I said to John Hurt, I was walking home with him, you know: Orson Wells will make a fabulous movie here. Last night we were walking and you could almost feel it, like you were in one of Orson Wells’ movies. I mean he already made Othello here, but you could do very good Othello here. Sure.” (Christopher Walken 2005 Dubrovnik)

2006 will be the fourth year of its existence, Dubrovnik in Croatia is well known in the world for its cultural and historical venues. Tradition and culture in this beautiful little coastal town, perfectly fits into their everyday life, while DIFF (Dubrovnik International Film Festival) this year starts in October and is having an independent film festival character. DIFF festival invites celebrities and relevant names in the film business and, of course, promotes the cinema of ex-Yugoslavia and nowadays Croatia. Naturally, the city of Dubrovnik and Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia supports this important international cultural event.


The 2005 DIFF Dubrovnik International Film Festival, started with Ladies in Lavander, directed by Charles Dance, featuring Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, and closed with an action film by Breck Eisner, Sahara, starring with Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz. The festival program included, out of competition, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Garth Jennings and The Woodsman by Nicole Kassel. Beside an official program of the feature and documentary films in the competition, the festival program included feature, animated and Croatian films out of the competition and a Vatroslav Mimica Retrospective of films from the '60s, as an important part of the formal Yugoslavian film opus.

The most important events at DIFF were screenwriting panels, screenings and a press conference. The DIFF Dubrovnik Film Festival held two very important screenwriting panels on the subject of film, literature and publicity: "Books Into Films" held by panelist John Hurt, well known actor; Dr. James Ragan, the dean of the USC Master of Professional Writing Program; Hugh Linchean, an entertainment editor of the Irish Times; Marvin Siegel, New York Times editor; Hilary Heath, UK film producer; Oren Jacoby and Peter Medak, film directors; Daniel Rosenthal, the editor of Variety International Film Guide, “the best annual guide to world cinema” by The Observer and film and theatre critic, also the moderator of all panels, discussions and press conferences of the festival.

   
John Hurt                                   Screenwriting panelists                        Gregory Widen

Another screenwriting panel, "A Look at European and American Storytelling", was held by Dr. James Ragan; Gregory Widen, well known film director and writer; Andrew Dean, television and film producer of Industry Entertainment; and Mile Rupcic, the winner of the Hartley Merrill International Screenwriting Prize. The discussions debated the difference between European and American storytelling and their meeting points and turning books into films, about the best ways to adopt book into film.

The selection of films at the festival, and the entire cinema program of the festival, reflects a consciousness of film currents in the past few years. Within its rather small festival of international character, DIFF’s selection of films goes for about 15 countries, couple of film cooperation including: UK, USA, China, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Sweden, Poland, Chile, Spain, Netherlands, Austria, Australia and Croatia.

Regarding the fact that Dubrovnik International Film Festival is a small festival in a small country, I think we should consider DIFF jury for feature film: Mark Shivas, UK TV and film producer; Sheamus Smith, producer and former film censor of Irish Film Board; Gregory Mosher, producer, Director of Columbia University of US Arts Initiative; Andrew Dean, film producer, manager, partner in LA Industry Entertainment; Regina Dantas, CEO of USA Bossa Entertainment of New York; Maya Gregl from Croatian Television and Maryte Kavaliauskas, the film director.

The jury for documentary film comprises: Kiril Raylogov and Gregory Widen, film director and scriptwriter from USA. Also in the jury of the festival, the Croatian winner of the Hartley Merrill International Screenwriting Prize, among 23 other countries in the competition, Mile Rupcic; from the Foundation’s Board of Directors, Dina Merrill; Dr.James Ragan, the Dean of USC Master of Professional Screenwriting Program; and Founding Member of the Foundation,Ted Hartley.

Founding members of The Hartley Merrill Foundation are: Ted Hartley, George Kirgo, Dina Merrill, Nikita Mikhalkov, Lord David Putnam, Robert Redford, Lina Wertmuller, andSir David Williamson.

DIFF Festival Awards

The festival's LIBERTAS AWARDS were given to Christopher Walken and Peter Medak, for extraordinary achievement. The ARGOSY AWARD was given to Emily Watson for outstanding individual in the realm of filmmaking (Dubrovnik's Argosy ships were merchant ships, also mentioned by Shakespeare).

Out of the films presented in competition at DIFF, the 3rd Dubrovnik International Film Festival, the International Jury awards were:

FEATURE FILMS

BEST FILM: Frozen, directed by Juliet McKeon (UK)
BEST DIRECTOR: Zhoorek, directed by Ryszard Brylski (POLAND)
BEST SCREENPLAY: Oprosti za Kung Fu, written and directed by Ognjen Svilicic (CROATIA)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Frozen, cinematography by Philip Robertson (UK)

DOCUMENTARIES
Sve pet, directed by Dana Budisavljevic (CROATIA)

SHORT FILMS
Phaid, directed by Chris Frey (USA)

AUDIENCE AWARD
Golemata voda, directed by Ivo Trajkov (MACEDONIA)

Special Mention
Sve pet, directed by Dana Budisavljevic (CROATIA)

LIBERTAS AWARDS
Chistopher Walken
Peter Medak

ARGOSY AWARD
Emily Watson

Emily Watson (Argosy Award winner)
with Peter Medak (Libertas Award winner)