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Production is underway in Croatia and the Czech Republic on Ungrateful Beings, the English-language debut of Czech-based Slovenian filmmaker Olmo Omerzu.

Jimmy’s Hall actor Barry Ward and Slovak-Italian star Barbora Bobulova lead the cast, alongside newcomers Dexter Franc and Antonin Chmela, and Slovenian actor Timon Sturbej, who was named a European Film Promotion Shooting Star in 2022.

Ungrateful Beings follows a family in the Czech Republic who come back from an Adriatic holiday where their 17-year-old daughter – who suffers from an eating disorder – has fallen in love with a local scoundrel. When it turns out he is a murder suspect, the...

For a character in a film to see themselves as others see them, it generally requires subterfuge, or a magic doubling. For Rok (Jure Henigan), the reason is much more everyday - a bang on the head, in an incident never fully detailed, from which he wakes up in hospital with memory loss. With no recollection of his immediate past, including the life he shared with his girlfriend (Živa Selan doing a lot of work with slight material), he retreats to the last place he remembers clearly, the hometown, where he lived with his mother (Nataša Barbara Gračner) and younger brother Jure (Timon Sturbej).

The fearful way his mother reacts to him is the first indicator that something isn’t quite right, a feeling of disconnection between how Rok feels about the place and how the period he can’t remember shaped how others feel about him. This sense of distortion is.

Slovenian director Dominik Mencej will put the motorbikes aside after his 90s-set road movie “Riders,” focusing on a female protagonist next. Once again set in the past, his new project “Aberrant Bride” will revolve around an “imported” young wife from Croatia, coming into a new environment and a new family, led by her husband’s domineering mother.

“It’s similar but different,” says Mencej.

“There is no open road, just a forest next to the house, but it’s also about this sense of belonging. I guess I can’t figure out how to tell a story with cellphones and social media. I don’t know how to make a perfect film for this era. At least not yet.”

But the present still can be felt in his Sarajevo title “Riders,” produced by Staragara, Antitalent, Novi Film, Transmedia Production, Sense Production and Nu Frame.

“A comment about the past can...

1999-set drama follows two young friends on the trip of a lifetime.

Slovenian writer and director Dominik Mencej premiered Riders, his feature debut, in the feature competition of this month’s Sarajevo Film Festival.

The young director, who graduated in Film and Television Directing at the University of Ljubljana, won the awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 2014 Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož with his short film The Springtime Sleep.

Riders follows two young friends from a small Slovenian village who, with the year 2000 rearing into view, decide to get on the road and ride their mopeds through Croatia and Slovenia.

Lecturers include Finland’s Juho Kuosmanen, US producer Peter Spears.

US duo Frances McDormand and Joel Coen will be ‘masters’ for the second edition of Ponta Lopud Film Festival, on the island of Lopud near Dubrovnik, Croatia.

McDormand and Coen will give invite-only masterclasses to directors, actors and cinematographers from Southeast Europe, in the festival from June 22 to 27.

Ponta Lopud was started last year by Miro Purivatra, founder and long-time director of Sarajevo Film Festival; and Tilda Grossel Bogdanovic.

The festival will also host lectures from Juho Kuosmanen, Finnish director of Compartment No. 6; Peter Spears, US producer of titles including...

Each year we’re proud to work with the European Film Promotion, and to sit down with the newly unveiled cohort of the Shooting Stars programme. Each year the Efp celebrate and promote the best in European acting talent and choose ten up and coming actors to showcase. The ten actors are Gracija Filipovic (Croatia), Marie Reuther (Denmark), Anamaria Vartolomei (France), Emilio Sakraya (Germany), Clare Dunne (Ireland), Hanna van Vliet (The Netherlands), João Nunes Monteiro (Portugal), Timon Sturbej (Slovenia), and Evin Ahmad (Sweden).

They talk to Stefan Pape in Berlin about their reaction to the nomination, their drive to succeed and how their home country has inspired them on their journey.

Here are the interviews.

Main Image: Emilio Sakraya (Germany), João Nunes Monteiro (Portugal), Clare Dunne (Ireland), Anamaria Vartolomei (France), Souheila Yacoub (Switzerland), Gracija Filipović (Croatia), Timon Sturbej (Slovenia), in the centre: Marie Reuther (Denmark), in front f.l.t.

Efp Shooting Stars Celebrates 25th Anniversary

The 2022 cohort of European Shooting Stars have been confirmed. The initiative, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, comes from European Film Promotion. The seven actresses and three actors will be unveiled at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival at an event on February 14 at the Berlinale Palast. This year’s selected talents are: Gracija Filipović (Croatia), Marie Reuther (Denmark), Anamaria Vartolomei (France), Emilio Sakraya (Germany), Clare Dunne (Ireland), Hanna van Vliet (The Netherlands), João Nunes Monteiro (Portugal), Timon Sturbej (Slovenia), Evin Ahmad (Sweden) and Souheila Yacoub (Switzerland). They were selected by a five-person jury consisting of Levan Akin, Timka Grin, Sara Serraiocco, Bernard Michaux and Yun-hua Chen.

Screen Ireland Appointment

Screen Ireland has named Irish producer Niamh Fagan to the role of Project Manager within the agency’s creative Production and Development team. Fagan will work across Screen Ireland’s supported feature film and documentary projects,...

European Film Promotion has announced the 10 rising young actors selected for the 25th edition of European Shooting Stars, the promotional event held during the Berlinale that has been instrumental to boosting careers of top talents such as Alicia Vikander, Riz Ahmed, Alba Rohrwacher and George MacKay.

Due to Omicron-related constraints, this year’s Shooting Stars is taking place as a hybrid edition comprising some online events being scheduled before the Berlinale, while others will take place on-site during the festival. One of the program’s highlights will be the European Shooting Stars Awards Ceremony set for Feb. 14 at the Berlinale Palast.

The 10 selected European Shooting Stars for 2022 are: Gracija Filipović (Croatia); Marie Reuther (Denmark); Anamaria Vartolomei (France); Emilio Sakraya (Germany); Clare Dunne (Ireland); Hanna van Vliet (The Netherlands); João Nunes Monteiro (Portugal); Timon Sturbej (Slovenia); Evin Ahmad (Sweden); and Souheila Yacoub (Switzerland).

This year’s roster – three men and seven women – of standout actors,...

As American film and TV has finally begun to embrace more joyful queer storylines over the last few years, the darkness of international queer cinema reflects a bleaker picture of the realities of gay life in the rest of the world. “Consequences,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, is the first Slovenian film to ever deal with Lgbtq themes, a fact that augurs the film’s unflinchingly dark outlook.

That’s not to say there isn’t much to enjoy in Darko Stante’s debut feature, which is impeccably crafted, and boosted by an electrifying performance from its smoldering young lead, the equal parts brooding and babyfaced Matej Zemljic. “Consequences” thrums with a vibrant current — propelled by a dizzying churn of cigarettes, cocaine, fistfights, and shirtless young men — until arriving at its predictably explosive conclusion. The film’s perspective may be austere, but its heart is defiantly exuberant.

“Consequences” is a somewhat daring enterprise for Slovenia in that it doesn’t judge its characters for their bi or gay sexuality. Indeed, their simultaneous extreme machismo and party-hearty vibe seem designed to impress younger viewers that these figures are cool whoever they shag. Offshore, however, Darko Stante’s promising first feature looks more like a bad-boy beefcake fest whose precise point beyond titillation is unclear. Nonetheless, this well-crafted drama should be welcome at gay tests and in niche home-format sales around the world.

Broodingly handsome — though there’s scant evidence he’s actually the thinking type — Andrej (Matej Zemljic) is a mature-looking 18-year-old ne’er-do-well whose mother (Rosana Hribar) is at wit’s end with him. He refuses to attend school or get a job, and a rap sheet of petty criminal offenses is now capped by his striking a girl at a party after she’d complained about his lack of sexual follow-through.

Andrej (Matej Zemljic) is an eighteen-year-old abuser. He’s stopped going to school, started getting into fights, disrespects his parents, and most recently hit a teen after she berated him for his not wanting sex. It’s an escalating series of incidents that no one is willing to deal with anymore, so they decide to let a judge handle him instead. The verdict: a detention center for troubled youths with 24/7 security, education, workshops, and free weekends (if you don’t do something to lose those days too). Like any kid his age, Andrej fears what this means while turning the blame onto those who “gave up” on him when he’s the one who gave up first. Either this place will give him structure or it’ll just make him worse.

The title of the film is therefore quite apt. Darko Stante’s Consequences not only throws the word around...