Press conference outlines festival highlights; tickets now on sale
On Tuesday, 8 October, at a press conference in Kinodvor, Ljubljana, the director of the Slovenian Film Centre, Nataša Bučar, the festival director, Bojan Labović, the head of industry events, Veronika Zakonjšek, and the project manager, Tjaša Smrekar, outlined the programme highlights and main features of the 27th FSF Portorož. Tickets for the festival are now on sale online.
At the conference, Bojan Labović emphasised that the festival was one of the few national film festivals in the region, adding that even among those, it stands out for “focusing not only on feature films but showing works of all modes and formats”. The festival line-up includes 72 films that are in competition for Vesna awards, as well as 27 films that are part of the Panorama section. Nataša Bučar said, “the Official Competition of this year’s FSF Portorož is reflective of the fact that public funding in Slovenia also goes to more communicative films, especially films for children and youth”. Bučar added: “We are pleased to see that Slovenia’s Government has allocated significantly more funds for film in the next two years, allowing us to create better conditions for filmmaking, especially in terms of financial support per single project. In terms of the number of projects, we have in recent years reached the maximum production capacity currently available in Slovenia. At the same time, we haven’t been able to raise film budgets substantially. The announced funding rise will allow us to do this.”
While showcasing the latest Slovenian cinema, the festival will also honour two of its legends: filmmakers Igor Pretnar and Matjaž Klopčič. A screening of Eisenstein’s Student: Director Igor Pretnar in Moscow (Slavko Hren, 2012) and a conversation with the director, Slavko Hren, will celebrate the centenary of Igor Pretnar’s birth. Meanwhile, to commemorate the 90th birth anniversary of Matjaž Klopčič, a screening of his third fiction feature, Funeral Feast, will be followed by a conversation with Majda Širca, a connoisseur of Klopčič’s work.
The festival also boasts a strong Industry Programme, and Festival Nights with selected DJs.