Boris T. Matić and Hrvoje Laurenta, respectively director and executive director of the Zagreb Film Festival, have announced the creation of Croatian.film, an internet platform for promoting Croatian short films. It will be a way, the two men hope, to give the international public an idea of the high quality of Croatian short films. They also want to highlight the diversity of these short films by arranging them in different categories (drama, animation, documentary, experimental and hybrid) and genres.
The platform was designed as an extension of Checkers, a short film competition which is part of the Zagreb Film Festival. Viewing on croatian.film is free of charge. The platform currently lists 118 short films, some of which have won awards in Croatia and internationally. It also provides additional content such as information about the films, a film database, news and interviews.
Hrvoje Laurenta said they want “to create a platform both for cinema professionals and the general public. We feel the time has come to launch this unique cinematographic portal in order to save our “short films” from oblivion and interested audiences from a lack of quality films.” Despite the importance of short films in many festivals, and their impact on audiences, Laurenta adds “I realized that once shown at the festival, short films have little or no chance of being seen by anyone who missed that screening. This is a major drawback, especially considering that, since its creation, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre has co-financed almost 450 short films.”
The platform is co-funded by the Ministry of Culture as part of a drive to promote Croatian cultural and creative industries, and by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC).
Croatian directors are invited to apply to have their short films put on line. For this, the application is made here
Sources :
http://croatian.film
https://www.havc.hr
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