Audience, guests and organisers bid farewell to festival in Motovun amid high emotions • Festival embarks on a new chapter this Wednesday at Petehovac in Gorski Kotar

With a traditional toast, this time amid much emotion, the Cinehill Motovun Film Festival said goodbye to its previous location in Motovun. On the crowded Motovun square, the audience, guests and organisers toasted the 25 wonderful years of films, joy and great atmosphere on this Istrian hill.

All of the festival’s founders, as well as today’s team and volunteers, received a roaring greeting on stage. “We are both sad and happy because this festival has done so much for domestic cinema. The majority of the festivals in the country later stemmed from it. When I graduated from the Academy and started working in 1999, it was terribly depressing, and this festival gave us something to do”, said film director Dana Budisavljević, a member of the festival team in its early days.

The festival now moves from 277 metres above sea level in Motovun, to the 1035 metres high up at the Petehovac mountain top near Delnice. In a specially decorated, fairytale-like environment from 26 to 29 July, the festival begins a new chapter with a concept similar to the one so far – numerous independent films, music, artistic and other events coupled with relaxation and hedonism.

During the evening, awards were presented in the renowned short film competition. The jury decided that the best film in the program Cinehill Shorts is German short Tremor directed by Rudolf Fitzgerald Leonard. “As a portrait of a disabled man, Tremor embodies an idea of cinema that the jury wants to defend and cherish: uncompromising, never afraid to disturb the audience and beautiful in its rawness. Like the main protagonist, it is a film which does not want to be defined by expectations or self-pity”, said the jury statement.

At the same time, the jury chose the warm and sincere Turkish short Things Unheard Of directed by Ramazan Kılıç as this year’s Cinehill Motovun candidate for the European Film Award, “for its simple and authentic rendering of the opposition to censorship in a revolutionary child-like manner”.

A jury Special Mention went to French-Columbian short All-Inclusive directed by Duván Duque Vargas. The rest of the festival prizes will be awarded at the end of the second part of Cinehill Motovun, at Petehovac in Gorski Kotar.

This year’s Cinehill Motovun Film Festival is held with the support of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Kvarner Tourist Board, Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

Tickets for the film program are available online at: https://motovunfilmfestival.com/en/tickets-2/