The Motovun Film Festival () is an annual film festival established in 1999 and held in the small town of Motovun, Croatia until 2023, when it moved to a new location, Petehovac in Gorski Kotar. It usually takes place over five or six days in late July or early August.
Overview
Motovun Film Festival is entirely dedicated to films made in small studios and independent film productions. Founded by film director Rajko Grlić and producer Boris T. Matić, it was first organized in the late 1990s to fill the gap in cinema repertoire as there were almost no non-Hollywood films in wide distribution in Croatia at the time. Every year, the festival program consists of around 70 titles from all over the world, from documentaries to feature films, short and feature-length films, from guerrilla-made films to co-productions.
Over time the festival has become widely popular, especially among young people both locally and abroad. Every year during the festival, a camp for visitors is organized next to the festival site. The festivalgoers' camp has become one of the hallmarks of the festival. In January 2007, the British newspaper The Guardian described the festival as "a cross between Glastonbury and Sundance." It is often referred to as "a Woodstock of film festivals".
The festival also grew in status on the festival circuit. From an event that was once considered a "backpacker's film festival," by 2007 it was recognized as one of the two most important film festivals held on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, along with the Sarajevo Film Festival.
The 2011 festival, which was supposed to be its 13th edition, was re-numbered by organizers as the 14th, in order to skip the unlucky number 13. The skipped year was maintained in all later festival editions, until 2021 (officially the 24th edition). For the 2022 festival, the last one held exclusively in Motovun, the skipped numbering was abandoned, so that it was officially designated 24th as well. And the 2023 edition - held in both Motovun and in Gorski Kotar, was officially designated as the "25th."
In 2023 it was announced that the festival would expand to another location, the mountain lodge settlement of Petehovac near Delnice in the mountainous region of Gorski Kotar, some 80 kilometers east of Motovun. That year the festival was held in both locations. The screenings at Petehovac were branded "Cinehill," in reference to the informal nickname given to the original MFF event, as the "hill of films." In 2024 the festival, now called Cinehill, was entirely moved to Petehovac, and is no longer held at Motovun.
Awards The main award at the festival is called Propeller Motovuna (, inspired by the prominent wind turbines located near Motovun).
Other awards at the festival are the Motovun Online award for best short film, the odAdoA (From 'A' to 'A') award for best film in the regional competition (the name of the award is short for From Austria to Albania, roughly describing the region covered), and the film critics' FIPRESCI Award.
In 2008, the Motovun Maverick Award was introduced, given to notable filmmakers for lifetime achievement. Its first recipient was Ken Russell. In 2013, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and The Gardener were given the award.
Award winners Cinehill Propeller Known as Propeller of Motovun from 2000 to 2022, in reference to windmills dotting the festival's former location at Motovun, this is the main award of the festival, given to the best film screened in the main feature film program. Renamed Cinehill Propeller after the festival's rebranding in 2023 and move to its new location in the Gorski Kotar mountains in 2024. YearInternational titleDirectorCountry2000 Billy Elliot 2001 Last Resort2002 Bloody Sunday2003 Punch-Drunk Love2004 Ae Fond Kiss…2005 The Death of Mr. Lazarescu2006 Look Both Ways2007 Sweet Mud2008 Silent Light2009 Fish Tank2010 OctoberDaniel and Diego Vega Vidal2011 Bullhead2012 The Delay2013 The Plague2014 The Tribe2015 The Wakhan Front2016 Viva2017 Western2018 Killing Jesus2019 A White, White Day2020 My Morning Laughter2021 Pleasure2022 War Pony and Gina Gammell2023 Falcon2024 When the Light Breaks
FIPRESCI Prize YearInternational titleDirectorCountry2001 No Man's Land2002 Grill Point2003 Margarette's Feast2004 The Five Obstructions and Jørgen Leth2005 Day and Night2006 We Feed the World2007 Hallam Foe2008 Blind Loves2009 Fish Tank2010 The Four Times2011 Martha2012 Play2013 The Daughter2014 Force Majeure2015 Magical Girl2016 A Good Wife2017 Western2018 Birds of Passage and Ciro Guerra2019 God Exists, Her Name Is PetrunyaTeona Strugar Mitevska2020 My Morning Laughter2021 Factory to the Workers2022 The Sacred Spirit2023 Blaga's Lessons2024 When the Light Breaks
Notable guests People who visited the festival include: Dušan Makavejev Stephen Daldry Paul Thomas Anderson Ken Russell Vanessa Redgrave Amanda Plummer Mira Furlan Milena Dravić Jason Biggs Jamie Bell
References
External links
Motovun Film Festival at the IMDb