Kino Otok Has Come to a Close – See You Next Year!
Like last night, the Manzioli square shone under the starry sky the entire festival week – despite the rain clouds that raced above the viewers’ heads night after night, all the screenings in Manzioli Square took place without the slightest complication. Eight films were screened at the open-air cinema, three of them fully packed (the opening and the closing film – No Fear and Lisanka – and the Italian The Four Times), while the others (including the late ones) boasted a very high attendance.
All the films in Manzioli Square were presented by their authors (or at least members of the cast and crew, since the director of Pauline at the Beach is unfortunately no longer with us) with the aid of the films’ godfathers – the famous people from Primorska who decided to take particular films under their wing and in their own way bring them closer to the audience. Before every first evening screening under the sky, we were entertained by a short music programme of more or less local musicians.
In five festival days, 23 feature films (each at least twice) and 17 short films were screened. There was more than 60 screenings altogether. We welcomed numerous guests from all continents, directors, producers, film experts and others. As mentioned above, the films at the open-air cinema in Manzioli square were seen by an enviable number of viewers, while four documentaries for children and youngsters brought to Isola by the Kinobalon programme were a hit with the audience – due to the great interest of schools, we had to organise extra screenings for them. We sold a large number of ticket packages and provided a roof over the heads of all ticket package holders at the (S)camp.
During the festival in Isola, MasterCard – our main sponsor – prepared the “Isola – Film Island” photo competition, and on the last day of the festival a jury composed of three members selected the winning photo out of the 86 it received. The winning photo entitled “Da (Yes)” was taken by Marko Cotič Trojer. According to the jury, the photo met the technical as well as the content requirements: “The photo has a harmonious combination of colours and a good composition, but it convinced us especially with its originality and its compliance with the topic of the competition. The blue reminds one of the sea, the sky and summer. The compositional choice of the word “yes”, which is cut from a longer text, suggests that the summer is before us. The author noticed and very originally and creatively presented a detail from everyday life that would otherwise have remained unnoticed. The photo leaves ample room for many different interpretations and thus provides a good basis for thinking.”
The 7th edition of the festival is this behind us. We would like to thank all who cooperated with us in its organisation, all who came to Isola to present their work and all who visited the festival as viewers and film lovers.
We can hardly wait for next year, the next edition of the festival and films that will travel here, to the coast of Slovenia from all parts of the world.
