22 May The entire programme of the 20th Kino Otok – Isola Cinema Festival is revealed, the sea of films is rolling in
A packed film and educational programme marks the 20th edition of the international film festival Kino Otok – Isola Cinema, the main part of which will take place in Izola from 5 to 9 June 2024. In June, September and October, cinema screenings will also take place at the Slovenian Cinematheque and Kinodvor in Ljubljana, as well as at art cinemas in Cerknica, Idrija, Sežana and Tolmin. The anniversary programme looks back at the history of the festival and reflects on the future of the festival community, auteur cinema and society. The full programme and guests are published on the website kinootok.org, while the pre-sale of season tickets and discounted tickets is already available on mojekarte.si.
Films and guests of the 20th Kino Otok – Isola Cinema Festival in Izola
The film programme will bring more than 44 feature films and 77 shorts to Slovenian screens, as well as numerous guests, many of them returning to the festival with their latest films. In Izola, films will be screened under the stars at the Manzioli and Arrigoni Open-air cinemas and at the Video on the Beach near the Lighthouse, under the roof of the Odeon Art Cinema, the Cultural Centre and other locations.
We will meet filmmakers from near and far. Emilija Gašić will present herself with her film 78 days (Serbia, 2024), Oscar Allegrio visits with Zinzindurrunkarratz (Spain, 2023), Ivan Ramljak will return to Izola with El Shatt – a plan for utopia (Croatia, Serbia, 2023), Guillermo Giampetro and Pavel Berdon from Trieste with Listen to Me (Escuchame, Italy, 2022), Neil Young returns this time as the author of Point d’Impact (Austria, Poland, 2022) and director Shoghakhat Vardanyan with 1489 (Armenia, 2023).
Among the local guests we are expecting director Maja Weiss and screenwriter Nataša Konc Lorenzutti with their film Snatched from the Source (2023), Jan Cvitkovič with Bread and Milk (Slovenia, 2001) selected by the Young Selectors, Izola’s Remigio Grižonič with several short films, and the festival in Izola will be closed in a unique style with a music-film event by two locals, musician Elvis Šahbaz and filmmaker Davorin Marc.
As film guests and guests of PRO Otok, we will also be visited by an old acquaintance of Kino Otok, Bill Morrison, with several short films, including Incident (USA 2023), and Laura Samani, with, among others, her short film Summer is over – Notes on Furio (Italy, 2023).
During the Submarine programme, the young selectors will talk to Tobias Wiemann, director of The Path (2023), and at the workshop we will get to know illustrator Michele Bernardi and his animated films. After the Video on the Beach screenings, we will also talk and mingle with a number of filmmakers.
| The Golden Thread (Nishtha Jain, 2022), El shatt – a plan for utopia (Ivan Ramljak, 2023), Beyond Dreams(Elvis Šahbaz in Davorin Marc), 1489 (Shoghakhat Vardanyan, 2023) |
PRO Otok with a focus on found footage and the green transition in culture
PRO Otok, a programme for film professionals and others interested in the journey of film from idea to screen, will be held for the first time in a large scale at the Art Cinema Odeon, in addition to the Manzioli Palace. As part of our traditional cooperation with Motovila/CED Slovenia, we will be hosting Claudia Ziegenfuß from the Berlin-based NGO Kijufi, which coordinates the development of a Sustainability and Social Awareness Charter for young film audiences within the Young4Film network of European film festivals, for the workshop Green Transition in Culture: focus on young film audiences. In a programme dedicated to found footage film and the creative use of archival material, we will host Gabriele Ragonesi in collaboration with UnArchive Festival, with the Found Image: Premio Cesare Zavattini Short Film Programme and a presentation of UnArchive Festival and the Audiovisual Archive of the Labour and Democratic Movement (Aamod), followed by the Found Image: Short Film Programme and a discussion with found footage filmmakers. We will close with a world-renowned master of reinterpreting analogue film with the event Found Image: Short Films Programme and a masterclass by Bill Morrison. Last but not least, PRO Otok will also host Short Scene at Isola Cinema: Short Film Case Studies with Matjaz Ivanišin and Nika Jurman.
Train Again (Peter Tscherkassky, 2021), Incident (Bill Morrison, 2023)
Exhibitions and music nights at the Lighthouse
Isola Cinema doesn’t ends when the last projector shuts off and the cinema operator finishes their day. This year, in cooperation with the various Izola associations, galleries and the Academy of Arts of the University of Nova Gorica, the festival pulse of And so Much More programme will be tidal through the streets, galleries and museums of Izola, ending with the evening music programme Nights of Lights on the Lighthouse Beach, organised in cooperation with the Izola Students Club. Festival summer nights will feature performances by Iva Bobanovič, Market Garden, One Cupcake Away, Caro Mio, Angelica & Alex Sasch and a jam session.
Otok in Ljubljana and elsewhere
Since every city can be an island, Kino Otok, we will be screening a selection of this year’s film programme in June in Ljubljana (Slovenian Cinematheque, Kinodvor), Cerknica, Idrija, Sežana and Tolmin (art cinemas, members of the Art Cinema Network of Slovenia) in collaboration with our partners. The latest films by Lav Diaz, Vitaly Mansky and Kleber Mendonça Filho, as well as historical classics by Jean-Luc Godard, Tawfik Saleh and Kira Muratova, whose retrospective will be screened as a part of Otok in Ljubljana at the Slovenian Cinematheque and the Kinodvor in autumn.
Temeljne resnice jezera (Lav Diaz, 2023)
The full festival programme is available on the website kinootok.org.
Festival programme booklet (PDF): download link (in Slovenian and Italian).
Arrigoni Open-air Cinema programme leaflet (PDF): download link (in Slovenian and Italian).
Submarine programme booklet (PDF): download link (in Slovenian and Italian).
All ticket information can be found here, pre-sale of festival tickets and discounted ticket sales: mojekarte.si, at the physical sales points of mojekarte.si all over Slovenia and at Kinodvor. The festival box office at the Art Cinema Odeon in Izola will be open from 3 June.