2nd Student International Film Festival (STIFF) in Rijeka from October 1 – 3, 2015
The Student Culture Centre at the University of Rijeka, in collaboration with Filmaktiv, announces the second annual Student International Film Festival – STIFF. The program for this year’s festival is once again selected by directors Maša Drndić and Sanja Marjanović, with support of renowned documentary film director from Serbia,Ivana Todorović.
The festival will take place October 1 – 3, 2015, at Art-Kino Croatia, City Puppet Theatre and Youth Cultural Centre Palach in Rijeka, Croatia, and is supported by Croatian Audiovisual Centre, University of Rijeka and Rijeka Tourist Board.
STIFF is bringing short fiction, animation and documentary films from every corner of the world to Rijeka’s audiences. Works of future film stars from Norway, Poland, Brazil, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Iran, Singapore, Japan, India, Portugal, Belgium, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Netherlands, United States of America and Croatia are in the running for this year’s prizes.
This year, STIFF selectors had a tough challenge, with more than 2000 film submissions, only 41 works entered in the final selection. Many of the films already have won awards at several prestigious international film festivals while others will premiere at the Art-Kino Croatia.
Entrance is free for all events!
“The student films we receive, sweep us off our feet every year and present us with an even greater challenge. This year, with the help from Ivana Todorović, we selected the best of some truly amazing films. This is a process that lasts for months. It is very important to us that these young directors and their films are given the attention they deserve and to show our local audience the works they won’t forget easily. These films rarely get cinematic releases and almost never reach general audiences, despite their exceptional quality and great success at film festivals. An unbelievable amount of talent, imagination and effort is put into each work, and some of these films are so nicely produced that the production on some of these is so well done, that they could easily stand alongside several Hollywood productions”, says selection committee member Sanja Marjanović.
The festival organization team has placed a special emphasis on animation and has put together an out of competition, bonus program titled ANIMAFOKUS. This year the number of amazing animated films was so large that we have decided not to leave it go unnoticed.
Audiences will be able to see ANIMAFOKUS at the Croatia Art Theatre the first day of the Festival, as well as every other day during the duration of the Festival from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the Students’ Cultural Centre Gallery at Palach.
The Department of Animation and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb will make an appearance at STIFF to present their recent works. Ana Hušman, the selector of the program will introduce student films and facilitate a short Q&A with the authors.
Another special edition of this years’ STIFF is «Wonders», a children’s program designed for our younger guests and for those who still love fairy-tales. The program will take place at the Rijeka City Puppet Theatre on Saturday October 3, at 4 p.m.
Also, as part of the Festival, 15 students will attend a Film critic workshop, led by a film critic and professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka, Prof. Dejan Durić, PhD. Workshop attendees will write reviews of several selected films.
During the public discussion ” Young people in the film industry “, which is created and moderated by students of the University of Rijeka, young filmmakers from Rijeka (Zoran Krema, Igor paulic and Nikolina Hrga) will talk about entering the world of film as well as what it takes to remain a part of this world.
STIFF is the first Croatian film festival that showcases exclusively student films and animation projects. A jury comprised of two experts and a student of the University of Rijeka will select the winning films in the following categories:
Best Fiction Film Jury:
Igor Paulić
Dragan Rubeša
Toni Jurčić (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences)
Best Documentary Film Jury:
Aleš Suk
Marta Batinić
Nikolina Hrga (Academy of Applied Arts)
Best Animated Film Jury:
Martina Perkušić
Ana Hušman
Loris Matešić (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences)
The Festivals starts October 1, at 7.30 p.m. followed by the Love Affairs program.
Alongside Filmaktiv and the Student’s Cultural Centre at the University of Rijeka, a large number of students of the University of Rijeka, are volunteering in Festival organization.
Students of the Academy of Applied Arts helped create the visual identity for the Festival and the design proposed by Tina Radosavljević was chosen as the official visual identity. 15 students will participate in the Film critic workshop, 3 students are members of the jury teams and a larger number of students is involved in organizing additional events, text translation, social media coverage and photographing the event.
