More Than 120 Renowned Documentary Filmmakers and Professionals to Attend ZagrebDox

The festival is hosting over 120 names from the global and domestic documentary scene. Foreign filmmakers are led by Syrian director Talal Derki with the film Of Fathers and Sons, the winner of the best documentary film award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and the famous French documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, editor and actress Claire Simon, who is presenting her documentary work in a retrospective and an extended talk. Talal Derki will also have a masterclass at ZagrebDox Pro and speak about his unique approach to filmmaking, as well as emotional and practical consequences of filming in war zones, as well as films dealing with different aspects of war in the filmmaker’s country. Besides, on day two of the festival he will take part in an extended Q&A session after the screening of his film.

Other authors presenting their international competition films in person include Ziad Kalthoum, another Syrian director, speaking about his multi award-winning film Taste of Cement. Another author is Sophie Vučković, a Zagreb-born Swedish resident, presenting her film Chameleons, while Lithuanian director Arūnas Matelis will discuss his film Wonderful Losers: A Different World. Latvian director and winner of the jury special mention for debut film at IDFA Ieva Ozolina is presenting her film Solving My Mother, which she developed last year at the ZagrebDox Pro workshop.

Among the Croatian filmmakers visiting the festival this year are: Damian Nenadić with Days of Madness and Jadranka Cicvarić Šiftar and Senad Zemunović with Josipa, I Love You in regional competition, Bojana Burnać in the State of Affairs section presenting My Life without Air, Višnja Skorin and Katarina Baticeli in Controversial Dox with Mary’s Black Sheep, and the special programme In Focus: New Europe will discuss two films by Croatian filmmakers, Arijana Lekić-Fridrih (Begin Again) and Zdenko Jurilj (Home).

A famous name of Croatian documentary scene Boris Poljak will be presiding this year’s international jury, and he will acquaint audience with his creative work on an author’s evening. The ZagrebDoXXL platform will present Restart’s Documentary Film School in a conversation with the teachers and mentors Nebojša Slijepčević and Dinka Radonić, and students Maja Alibegović, Ante Zlatko Stolica and Jasmina Beširević. Among other filmmakers presenting their film works are: Sanja Bistričić, Ivan Šušnjar, Vladimira Spindler, Katarina Zlatec, Inesa Antić, Dražen Puklavec, Sonja Lazić, Tea Vidović, Marta Klepo and Lorna Kunčić.

Another group of authors presenting themselves to the audience in an extended talk are ADU Dox authors Lovro Mrđen, Sunčica Ana Veldić, Renata Lučić, Josip Lukić and Zorko Sirotić. Regional competition authors meeting their audience in person at Q&A sessions are: the Belgrade-based director Mila Turajlić, whose film The Other Side of Everything triumphed at IDFA winning the best feature documentary award; Czech director Jan Gebert with In Case of War, developed in 2016 at the ZagrebDox Pro workshop, screened in Zagreb immediately after the world premiere at Berlinale; Hungarian director and editor Bernadett Tuza-Ritter (A Woman Captured); Bulgarian director, novelist and playwright Georgi Tenev (Simon vs. Fear); the multi award-wining Serbian director Boris Mitić (In Praise of Nothing); Slovenian director Matjaž Ivanišin (Playing Men); Macedonian director Ilija Cvetkovski (With Love); the award-winning Kosovar director Kaltrina Krasniqi (Sarabanda); Italian director Giovanni Totaro (Happy Winter); the Sarajevo-based director and TV editor Sead Kreševljaković (Foes); the directing duo from Sarajevo Nejra Latić Hulusić and Sabrina Begović-Ćorić (Undercovered); Austrian director Bernard Braunstein (Atelier de Conversation); Serbian director Marko Cvejić (The Working Class Is off to Paradise); and Austrian director Christian Tod (Free Lunch Society).

The Biography Dox section will present Danish director Eva Mulvad. In addition to a Q&A session, at ZagrebDox Pro Eva Mulvad will present a case study about her latest documentary A Modern Man. In the State of Affairs section Swedish director Joakim Demmer will discuss his film Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas. Bosnian and Herzegovinian director Nedžad Begović is presenting his Happy Dox film Everywhere. Teen Dox is hosting two authors: Egyptian director Mohamed Siam (Amal) and Swedish director Mats Agren (The Making of a Politician), and this year’s new programme In Focus: New Europe is hosting the director of Licu, a Romanian Story, Anna Dumitrescu.