The Slovenian majority co-production Little Trouble Girls has been nominated for the European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI in the feature film category reserved for the debut features. Since its premiere at Berlinale, where it won the FIPRESCI prize in the newly found Perspectives competition, Urška Djukić’s film has been travelling festivals and reaping awards, the last one being the Jury Grand Prix at Les Arcs, where the whole award-winning journey started two years before with the award in the Works in Progress section. The story follows the 16-year-old Lucija (played by Jara Sofija Ostan) navigating her adolescence urges while on a trip to Italy with a choir, with friendships, love interests and a lot of emotions in the mix. The script for the film was written by the filmmaker, Maria Bohr and the co-producer Marina Gumzi. Little Trouble Girls is a Slovenian-Italian-Croatian-Serbian co-production staged between the companies SPOK, Staragara IT, Izazov 365, Non-Aligned Films, Nosorogi and Oink in association with RTV Slovenia and Sister Productions.
The stop-motion animation feature realised in parity co-production between Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and France, Tales from the Magic Garden, has nominations in the Best Animated Film and Best Film categories. Based on the stories by Arnošt Goldflam, this anthology consists of three shorter stories and the fourth that serves as their common frame. Each story was filmed by one of the teams from different co-production countries overseen by the local co-production company, but the style remains consistent throughout, making it one of this year’s success stories regarding European animation. The film premiered at Berlinale’s Generation section and made a splash at the circuit of festivals specialised in animation. It was directed by Leon Vidmar, David Súkup, Patrik Pašš and Jean-Claude Rozec and staged as a co-production between Maur Film, Artichoke, ZVVIKS and Vivement Lundi! in co-production with Czech Television, RTV Slovakia, RTV Slovenia, Pictanovo and Personne n’est parfait!.
The minority co-production Fiume o morte!, written, directed and narrated by Igor Bezinović, also has two nominations, for Best Film and Best Documentary. It is a docu-fiction that chronicles the proto-fascist occupation of the city of Rijeka in the early 1920s led by the eccentric poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. Its festival track record is pretty impressive, starting with the triumph at Rotterdam. The Slovenian participation in the film consists of Julij Zornik as the sound designer, Gregor Božič as the cinematographer and Marina Gumzi as the co-producer. It was realised in co-production between Croatia, Slovenia and Italy through the company Restart in co-production with Nosorogi and Videomante.
Voting for the nominated films is open until Thursday, January 8.
