The Finale Plzen festival, which concluded on 3 May 2014, featured a focus on Slovenian films both short and full-length, included Slovenian filmmaker Marko Santic on its main jury, and hosted a contingent of Slovenian representatives that included the Slovenian Film Center’s Nerina Kocjancic.
“Slovenian film has been building since 2000, with the first wave, and now a younger new generation is coming up,” Kocjancic told FNE. That new generation includes award-winning director Rok Bicek whose film Class Enemy (produced by Triglav Film, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) premiered at the Venice IFF before taking in over 40,000 admissions in domestic release (almost making it into the top ten box office hits of 2013) and being picked up for release in Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
“Venice is our most successful festival partnership,” Kocjancic said. It was also the launch pad for Vinko Moderndorfer’s 2008 film Landscape Number 2 which went on to win a slew of national and international awards. Moderndorfer is finishing his third feature Inferno (a Slovene/Croatian/Macedonian coproduction from Forum Ljubljana, Kinorama, Sektor Film, Delirium, and RTV Slovenija), the story of a struggling working class family, which is expected to receive another high-profile premiere.
Venice also launched the career of auteur filmmaker Vlado Skafar with his feature film debut Dad in 2010. He’s now in production with his second feature, Mother, a Slovene/Italian coproduction from Gustav Film inspired by Proust. Jan Cvitkovic, whose impressive credentials include the San Sebastian Best Director award-winning Gravehopping, is also in production with his next black comedy Siska de luxe, a Slovene/Czech/Macedonian coproduction from Perfo Production, Evolution Films and Kino Oko Productions.
Damjan Kozole, whose credits range from the dry no-budget comedy Porn Film to Spare Parts which premiered at the 53rd Berlinale, will shoot the drama Nightlife in autumn for his long-standing producer Danijel Hocevar of Vertigo Emotionfilm.
The list of films and filmmakers with blue ribbon festival credits goes on, but what makes it even more remarkable is that it comes from a country just 20 years old and with a population of only 2 million. Local audiences are also taking note. In 2013, a total of 13 films were in release in Slovenian cinemas, with three domestic films in the top ten. Leading the list was the number one film of the year, the boy scout comedy Going Our Way 2 (produced by Vertigo Emotionfilm) with 115,000 admissions, a follow-up to the 2010 number one hit Going Our Way which took in a record-breaking 208,000 admissions. At the other end of the spectrum was the stark drama of young men entering adulthood Chefurs Raus!, a Slovene/Bosnian/Croatian coproduction from Arsmedia, Depo Sarajevo, and Jadran Film Zagreb, which landed in eighth place with 55,000 admissions. The results were unprecedented for Slovenia, as domestic films claimed 10 percent of the total box office in 2013.
