Helmut has been and always will be an irreplaceable, reliable part of the Kino Otok – Isola Cinema Festival, he has been a dedicated participant in the preparation and execution of the film programme over the years and has brought to Otok many valuable films and filmmakers from many geographic and cinematic worlds.

In 2012, the Municipality of Izola awarded him the title of Izola Ambassador for his outstanding contribution to promoting Izola beyond its borders. Izola has become his second home and he has often returned here on numerous occasions and celebrations.

Helmut is a devoted friend, a loyal collaborator, a true godfather to Kino Otok. In his absence there is a void that in our grief we cannot even anticipate. And in his absence remains an enduring inspiration of his gentle but combative faith in comradeship, friendship, and cinema.

Kino Otok – Isola Cinema Festival Team

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WHEN: 18 and 25 February and 4 and 18 March 2023 (training) / 13 and 14 March 2023 (professional seminar)

DURATION: 10:00–14:00

LOCATION: Izola, Art Cinema Odeon, Ulica prekomorskih brigad 4, 3610 Izola (lectures and practical exercises); Ljubljana, Kinodvor City Cinema, Kolodvorska 13, 1000 Ljubljana (professional seminar)

FOR: Students of various courses, cultural workers, retired persons and individuals of all ages interested in film, work with young people and culture in the broadest sense. We will offer the participants the possibility of participating in film education programmes of four municipalities in Istria and the broader region.

The meetings will be led by Varja Močnik and Lorena Pavlič, two specialist collaborators of Otok Institute.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Wednesday, 15 February 2023, on this link: application.

PARTICIPATION FEE: € 40 (VAT included); in case of exceptional circumstances, free of charge. After your application is confirmed, you will receive an invoice to be paid by the beginning of the workshop. The paid participation fee will be repaid only upon the submission of a medical certificate.

More about the programme – Training for Film Education Programme Providers

Contact: Meri Viler, meri.viler@isolacinema.org

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In the Video on the Beach section, Kino Otok supports screenings of film production by new generations of emerging filmmakers, which explores the wealth and daring of film expression in both form and content. In addition to Slovenian independent production, the section also screens films from neighbouring countries and beyond. Video on the Beach is not a competition programme, but rather, it functions as an exploratory platform that enables not only public screenings of films, but also a dialogue, an exchange of ideas and experiences between the visiting established filmmakers and those who are either at the beginning of their film career or those whose work places them outside the established spaces of conventional and market-oriented filmmaking.

We call on young filmmakers (young at heart, that is) from Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Austria and beyond to submit their works, which, if selected, will be screened during the festival in a relaxed atmosphere under the stars in close proximity to the Lighthouse beach in Izola.

The selected authors will be entitled to:
• festival pass that enables access to all screenings, PRO and other events,
• free-of-charge camping at the festival camp Scamp,
• presentation of their film in the official festival catalogue.

There are no restrictions on film genres. Documentary, fiction, experimental or animated shorts should first and foremost be marked by unbridled, free and affiliative spirit that in one way or another does away with a series of constructed social, religious, cultural, ethnic, political, intergenerational and, of course, expressive barriers.

Length of submitted films: under 30 minutes. Films completed in 2022 or 2021 will be given priority. There are no limits to the number of entries by one filmmaker, but these have to be submitted separately. Video on the Beach does not require a submission fee.

You are invited to submit a completed online SUBMISSION FORM with attachments by Monday, 14 March 2022.

Video on the Beach programmers are Matevž Jerman, film critic, editor, curator, director and co-founder of Society for Short Film Promotion Kraken, and Programme Assistant at the Slovenian Cinematheque, and Mila Peršin, an author who focuses on film programming, film directing and acting while studying at the AVA Academy of Visual Arts, and works as part of the DobraVaga gallery team.

For more information please write to video@isolacinema.org. We are looking forward to your submission(s)!

See you at Otok!

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Witches of the Orient (Les Sorcières de l’Orient, 2021)

Alida (2021)

Sanremo (2020)

An interesting conversation about humanism and cinephilia can be expected with the Serbian director Ivan Ikić, whose Oasis (2020) boasts an abundant collection of awards and recognitions from world festivals. The story of the love triangle in a youth institution with special needs is an explosive outburst of detail that weaves the tangible substance of life. The director’s method of working with naturalists who play fictional characters unobtrusively elevates the banal nuances of everyday life into the spheres of poetry and truth.

At the festival we will also be joined by the important Catalan director Marc Recha, whose retrospective will take place after the screening in Izola at the Kinodvor and the Slovenian Cinematheque. In Izola, in the company of the author, we will watch the film August Days (Dies d’agost, 2005), which passes between a documentary essay and fiction and which speaks especially first-person, as Marc Recha and his brother David are at the heart of the story. The author will also join us in October at the retrospective screenings in Ljubljana.

We look forward to soon sparking conversations under the Otok screens and express diverse opinions about the film and about the world and the people the film reflects. The full film and accompanying program and festival schedule are available at this link!

The producer of the festival is Otok, Institute for the development of film culture. The co-producers of the festival are the Center for Culture, Sport and Events Izola, the Slovenian Cinematheque and Kinoatelje. The city cinema Kinodvor from Ljubljana and the Italian self-governing national community of Izola are partners of the festival.

The 17th edition of the Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival is supported by the following public co-financiers: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the Municipality of Izola, the European Commission’s Creative Europe – MEDIA sub-program, the European Commission and the Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia.

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Ljubljana: The Village Detective: a song cycle in the Open-Air Cinema of the Slovenian Cinematheque on the Museum platform On Monday, the 9th of August 2021, at 9.30 PM in the Open-Air Cinema of the Slovenian Cinematheque on the Museum platform in Ljubljana, the latest documentary by Bill Morrison, which years ago was a resounding guest at Kino Otok, entitled The Village Detective: a song cycle (Bill Morrison, USA, 2021, 81′). A shot from the Icelandic coast, the reels of a film starring popular Soviet actor Mikhail Zharov were discovered in a fishing net. Morrison combines the found film with the original music of David Lang and intertwines with footage from Zharov’s extensive filmography – a compound is created that evokes reflection on how the currents of life, history and art are preserved and crossed on celluloid. The screening is being prepared in cooperation with the Slovenian Cinematheque, which is a co-producer of the festival. In case of bad weather, the projection is canceled. Public presentation of the program in Ljubljana and Izola At the end of July, the entire film and accompanying program of the 17th Kino Otok – Isola Cinema festival will be revealed. Press conferences and public presentations of the program will take place on Tuesday, the 27th of July 2021, at 11 AM in front of Kino Šiška in Ljubljana and on Thursday, the 29th of July 2021, at 11 AM on the platform of the Izola Culture Centre. We will present live this year’s film and accompanying program, filmmakers who will join us this year as guests, as well as news and other highlights about this year’s festival. The presentations are intended for journalists, filmmakers, film lovers, collaborators of Kino Otok and old and new friends of the festival. In case of bad weather, the events will take place under the roof of Ljubljana’s Kino Šiška and Izola Culture Centre.

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Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Barka Experience – a unique silent film experience with live music At the festival in Izola we will present the unique experience of screening a silent feature film with live music. The classic The Tenant will be screened at the open-air cinema (The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, 1926) by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock with live music by local masters, the eclectic trio Jimmy Barka Experience, consisting of DJs Borka and Bakto, and drummer and percussionist Marjan Stanić. The feature film tells the story of life in London during the “epidemic” of serial killer Jack the Ripper. It is a dizzying slide of passion, suspicion, jealousy, mystery and fear. The silent Hitchcock’s masterpiece already establishes many stylistic and content obsessions of the following works of the film giant and reveals his extravagant and witty view of the world. Slovenian premieres of high-profile co-production films Sanremo and Oaza The feature films Sanremo (Miroslav Mandić, Slovenia, Italy, 2020) and Oaza (Ivan Ikić, Serbia, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, 2020) were made in Slovenian majority or minority co-productions and have resonated in the recent month’s largest foreign film festivals. In Slovenia, they will be premiered in Izola, at the 17th Kino Otok festival.

Sanremo by Bosnian-Slovenian author Miroslav Mandić is a gentle film about Bruno, who lives a life shrouded in mists of memories and oblivion in a home for the elderly. With a simple and poetic narrative, the director accurately outlines the feelings of memory loss through the veil of which the bright rays of friendship and love penetrate. The oasis of Serbian author Ivan Ikić is a story about a love triangle that takes place in an institution for young people with special needs. It is an explosive outburst of detail that weaves the tangible substance of life. The director’s method of working with naturalists who play fictional characters, unobtrusively elevates the banal nuances of everyday life into the spheres of poetry and truth.

The post The 17th Kino Otok – Isola Cinema film festival is scheduled for the end of August first appeared on OTOK.

International Filmmaking Academy Bologna, Italy
July 23rd – July 24th, Izola, Sončna dvorana JSKD

“My cinema is not born of cinema. If he has debt of gratitude or has to recognize stencils,
I would identify them in American comic strips”
(Federico Fellini)

Recommended Films:
LA STRADA (1954)
LA CITTA’ DELLE DONNE (1980)

DAY 01, July 23rd, From 14.00 – 17.00
– Introduction: the cinema of Federico Fellini (30 min)
– Considerations after watching the film and a short debate: (30 min)
– Experience immersive dreamlike contexts and new tools for Concept Art, thanks to Virtual Reality (2h)
Federico Fellini’s sketches presented in VR with Tilt Brush.
The participants will experiment Virtual Reality with the new wireless headset Oculus Quest2, walking and moving in an oniric environment.
They will be able to draw in 3D with Tilt Brush and to reproduce Fellini’s sketches. They will find some images of reference in their same VR space.
Each participant will have ten minutes to use the headset by themselves.
Two headset will be available at the same time, projecting a first person view in front of the whole class.

The aim: This activity will make easier participants approach with VR, teaching the basics of Tilt Brush.
Conclusion: Participants are divided into small groups who will choose a scene from the film viewed, which they will then have to reproduce within TiltBrush the following day pretending to be in the role of Fellini who communicates his vision to the crew.

DAY 02, July 24th. From 10:00-12:00, 15:00-18:00 (5h)
Dreamlike concepts with new tools: to communicate the scenic idea and the mood of characters during the pre-production.
If Fellini had had Tilt Brush instead of a pencil for his sketches…

Each group of two people will have an hour of time to create a model. Five groups of 2 people who will have to work contingently during the day, for example: first and second group from
10.00 to 11.00 , third and fourth group from 11.00 to 12.00, etc. From 16.00 to 18.00 all the groups will explain the scene to the companions.
10.00 group 1 – group 2
11.00 group 3 – group 4
12.00 group 5 – group 6
13.00 – 15.00 lunch break
15.00 group 7 – group 8
16.00 – 18.00 All together back in class: Each group shows and tells the scene they designed with Tilt Brush
18.00 – 18.30 closing session

The aim: To experiment with the new tools available to the creatives,
imagining to communicate the archetypal figures and dreamlike settings that Fellini communicated through sketches, with the expressive potential of Virtual Reality.

VR Master Teachers, International Filmmaking Academy, Bologna
GIAN LUCA BECCARI
Multimedia author and director passionate about art, new technologies and digital communication. https://www.gianlucabeccari.com
From 2008 to 2013 he has been CEO at the multimedia company Argilla Productions and from 2003 to 2008 consultant for Studio Azzurro in Milan.
Counselor at the International Filmaking Academy and professor at the Fine Art Academy of Bologna, he has been teacher for high education of “Transmedia Communication” at the School of Cinamatics Arts Florestano Vancini and at the Giffoni Academy (COM2), he has also taught at the University of Hypermedia with Gian V.ttorio Baldi. His lines of research are video art and the aesthetics of mass communication.
Lectures: Faculty of Philosophy at Statale University in Milan, Faculty of Architecture of Ferrara, Fine Art Academy of Bologna. He has made video and multimedia projects for interactive museums, theaters and art galleries.

GIOVANNI LAZZARI
3D Generalist, Augmented and Virtual Reality Designer. Professor of Immersive Environments at IAAD University. Milan, 3D Real Time Artist at EON Virtual Reality, Bologna, Maserati, Accenture Interactive & Mackevision. More here

Sign up with email to neza.kos@isolacinema.org.
Limited number of participants.

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We invite everyone who loves film and would like to undergo informal practical training in the field of organising film and cultural events to joins us and build an unforgettable film experience with us.

We offer you experience in an international environment, a possibility of completing obligatory practical training, socialising with established international filmmakers and, last but not least, new friendships. We will provide you with the knowledge and the skills that will enable you to initiate and carry out similar projects and programmes in the field of culture, education and youth work, and at the same time, we would also like to continue our cooperation in the following editions of the festival.

In its sixteen years, Isola Cinema has spontaneously developed into a space of informal practical training of young people, which is our answer to the current socio-economic situation. We devote special attention to including young people in the form of mentored practical training in the numerous areas of festival organisation and the related cultural and educational programmes of the Otok Institute. In addition to the festival, we organise film screenings and film education events throughout the year, and various events commonly named On the Island with Slovenian and international partners. We cooperate with numerous organisations like universities, youth centres, student clubs and cultural societies. We also encourage international cooperation of peers from Slovenia and abroad.

In a pleasant work atmosphere during the festival, our mentors will assist you in numerous areas of:

• organising and producing cultural and educational programmes,
• developing promotion and public relations,
• taking care of international festival guests,
• managing festival venues and logistics,
• managing the festival camp,
• photo and video documenting of the festival (attach your portofolio to the application),
• assisting in the kitchen and many more.

A month before the festival, we will also be glad to receive your help in the following areas:

• distribution of promotion materials,
• writing short texts,
• folding and enveloping promotional materials,
• promotion of the festival.

The daily presence in Izola is necessary during the festival dates. During the festival, we offer you:

• accommodation in the festival camp,
• meals,
• a festival pass affording you free entrance to all festival venues in your free time. 

If you want to cooperate with us, please fill in the ONLINE APPLICATION FORM by 15 June, 2021.

For further information please contact out Volunteer Coordinator Neža Vilhelm at volunteers@isolacinema.org.

On your request you will be given a certificate of participation. We are looking forward to responsible candidates who will happily co-create this year’s festival and perhaps become part of our annual organisational team or future creators of new film connections.

See you at Kino Otok – Isola Cinema 2021!

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KINO OTOK – ISOLA CINEMA 2020: FESTIVAL CATALOGUE

Edited by: Robert Kuret
Editorial board: Varja Močnik, Robert Kuret
Translations: Maja Lovrenov, Alenka Ropret
Cover design: Multipraktik

Follow us online:
isolacinema.org, facebook.com/kino.otok, instagram.com/kinootok_isolacinema.

The post KINO OTOK FESTIVAL CATALOGUE ONLINE first appeared on OTOK.

This year, the circumstances took us away from the lively festival island and isolated us on islets without touches, networking and the irreplaceable contacts with film screens and the people under them. After so many years, Isola Cinema could not welcome the summer, but we hope that the circumstances allow us to carry out the festival on the new dates. In July and August, the films will be screened in Isola Cinema’s satellites, while the programme will condense in Izola between 26 and 30 August 2020.

The programme that we re-thought and adapted in the last few months due to the new circumstances turned the Isola Cinema island into an archipelago, for, in addition to Izola, the programme will also visit other towns in Primorska and Ljubljana, while a part of it will also be available on-line.

This year’s programme and all the details related to this year’s edition will be presented at our press conference on Monday, 10 August, in the Open-Air Cinema of the Slovenian Cinematheque in the Metelkova Museum Quarter (Open Stage) in Ljubljana, and on Thursday, 13 August 2020, in Izola.

The first satellite screenings will take place by 13 August at five venues

In July and the first half of August, the first part of the satellite programme will take place at five venues.

The first screening will take place on Thursday, 16 July, at 9 pm, at the House of Culture in Sv. Anton near Koper. We will show the award-winning scintillating documentary Playing Men (Matjaž Ivanišin, 2017), shot in a humorous style reminiscent of Tati. In this magical auteur essay about men and their games, the director also runs into his own game – his creative crisis. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s director Matjaž Ivanišin.  

On Thursday, 23 July, at 9 pm, we will showFederico Fellini’s 8 ½ (1963) in the Gravisi – Buttorai Mansion in Koper. Upon the 100^th anniversary of the director’s birth and before his big autumn retrospective at the Slovenian Cinematheque, we will enjoy Fellini’s break-through work, in which the master throws before the viewer all his creative chaos, illusions and doubts only to arrange his inner circus into a perfect final order. The show will be a treat for cinephiles, for we will screen the film from a 35 mm print. The event has been prepared in cooperation with the Primorska Summer Festival, the Slovenian Cinematheque and the Santorio-Santorio Italian Community in Koper.

On Sunday, 2 August, at 9 pm, the Silvan Furlan Open-Air Cinema in Nova Gorica will host Francis Alÿs and Julien Devaux’s Sandlines, The Story of History (2020), in which children enact Iraq’s history. The screening has been organised in cooperation with Kinoatelje. The photo at the beginning is from this film.

On Friday, 7 August, at 9 pm, at the House of Culture in Sv. Anton, Timeless River (Anja Medved, Nadja Velušček, 2010) will immerse us in a personal, historical and felt vision of the Soča – a river that simultaneously delimits and connects, is full of anxieties and beauties, is attractive and dangerous, known for its emerald colour and the bloody front. The meetings along the river reveal the contradictions we live today in relation to nature. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s directors Anja Medved and Nadja Velušček.

On Monday, 10 August, at 9 pm, the Open-Air Cinema of the Slovenian Cinematheque in the Museum Quarter in Ljubljana will become one of Isola Cinema’s satellites. We will screen Present.Perfect (Zhu Shengze, 2019), a haunting documentary essay foregrounding the questions about loneliness, the longing for human contact, the meaning of community and the economic forces that tailor our social realities. The film is based on more than 800 hours of footage taken exclusively from Chinese streaming platforms. It disregards influencers with millions of followers and focuses on those living on the margins of society that remain mostly unnoticed. The event has been organised in cooperation with the Slovenian Cinematheque as part of the We Are #Open for Culture campaign.

The exceptional, haunting, tender, but also cruel Macedonian documentary Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov, 2019) will be screened on Thursday, 13 August, at 9 pm, at the Arrigoni Open-air Cinema in Izola. The film in which a remote village becomes a microcosm of the contemporary world is a homage to the resilience, persistence and optimism of a woman facing the fragile balance between humans and nature. The film won an award at Sundance, was nominated for an Oscar in two categories, while the European Film Academy nominated it for best documentary. The screening has been organised in cooperation with the Centre for Culture, Sport and Events and Art kino Odeon from Izola.

The second part of our satellite programme will take place after 13 August, which we will regularly inform you about.  

To keep up-to-date with the latest information about the programme, the possible changes of venues due to bad weather and other issues we recommend that you follow us online: isolacinema.org, facebook.com/kino.otok, instagram.com/kinootok_isolacinema.

The events will be carried out in a format adapted to the circumstances and in line with all the preventive measures and instructions in force at the time.

The festival’s produceris Otok, Institute for the Development of Film Culture. Its co-producers are: Centre for Culture, Sport and EventsIzola (CKŠP Izola), Art kino Odeon, Italian Self-Governing National Community Izola, Slovenian Cinematheque and Kinoatelje. Kinodvor City Cinema is the festival’s partner.

The 16^th edition of Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival is financially supported by the following public bodies: Slovenian Film Centre, MEDIA Sub-programme of Creative Europe, Municipality of Isola, Ministry of Public Administration and Ministry of Culture

The post 16th Kino Otok – Isola Cinema Begins Its Festival Journey on 16 July at the House of Culture in Sv. Anton first appeared on OTOK.