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)
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