The island of Lopud was conceived as a place for new and interesting content that would connect festival guests with the locals and bring more international recognition to the island. In the coming years, filmmakers from the region and around the world will be gathering on Lopud to socialize, have fun, exchange ideas and create networks and new projects.
''Ponta Lopud was envisioned as a creative hub where film professionals can gain new experiences and create long-term professional and friendly relationships in beautiful environment of Lopud island. Our goal is to create unique meeting place for maximum 30 participants to work and enjoy together, with no usual festival presure of every half hour new meeting,'' said Mirsad Purivatra, cofounder of Ponta Lopud Festival and director of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
"Miro Purivatra really knows how to get film lovers together and we follow him. I was already coming to the Sarajevo Film Festival, so when he invited me to come to Lopud, I didn't change my mind much. I am glad that I got the opportunity to be the first masterclass lecturer for these young and talented people, as they gave me so much of their good energy“, says director Pawlikowski, who teaches students at the Wayda Film School in Warsaw.
The first festival also hosted the Bosnian Oscar winner Danis Tanović and the Mexican director Michel Franco.
The selection of this year’s participants in the Ponta Lopud film masterclass – directors and actors with one feature or two short films under their creative belt – was ‘invitation only’. Creative masterclass sessions will allow participants to gain new experiences and knowledge, build their networks and create long-lasting professional relationships. This year's participants in the international program for film professionals in the category “Actors” were Nika Rozman, Iva Mihalic, Natasha Petrovikj, May-Linda Kosumovic, Toni Gojanovic, Filip Djuric, Rozafa Celaj, Igor Skvarica, and Ivana Zecevic.
“I endlessly enjoyed the unpretentious but perfectly organised festival which brought together some wonderful people and world-class professionals as well as masters of film art. Meeting each of them will most certainly affect my personal and professional development, so I owe each of them gratitude for that,” said actor Igor Skvarica, participant from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the international program for film professionals in the category “Directors” participants were Urska Djukic, Ognjen Glavonic, Marko Djordjevic, Dubravka Turic, Dana Budisavljevic, and Eleonora Veninova. Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC) and Film Centre Serbia (FCS) supported this segment of the program by fully covering the costs for participants from their countries.
On the last day of the festival, Pawel Pawlikowski and masterclass participants planted a palm tree in the park on Lopud. This practice will continue in the coming years, with the aim to create palm valley.
“Ponta Lopud met all my expectations. I had no doubts when I came here, and now I'm glad it is so. I am happy to have been a part of this. Working and hanging out with these young people was very interesting and inspiring. We worked really well, but we also had fun. I only got new energy from the masterclass participants”, Pawlikowski said.
Two films by Pawel Pawlikowski, COLD WAR and MY SUMMER OF LOVE, together with LA PROMESSE, a film of his choice by Dardenne brothers, were also screened at the festival.
“They say that every crisis brings new challenges. The Covid pandemic has brought some big changes into my life as well. My friendship with the Purivatra family and life on the island in the last year and a half have given rise to the Ponta Lopud Festival. Developing Lopud into a creative hub should bring fresh and interesting ideas to this magical island, underline its existing values, bring interesting guests and local population together and earn the island additional international recognition, because Lopud definitively deserves it,” said Tilda Grossel Bogdanović, director of Ponta Lopud Festival, a local partner in this project.
