10th STIFF is open!

The jubilee 10th STIFF – International Student Film Festival was opened in Art-kino Rijeka on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, at 7:00 PM, organized by Filmaktiv and the Student Cultural Center of the University of Rijeka. It was officially opened by Slobodanka Mišković, the director of Art-kino; Marta Žuvić, the vice-rector for studies, students, and quality assurance at the University of Rijeka; Sonja Šišić, the head of the Administrative Department for Culture, Sports, and Technical Culture of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County; and Maša Drndić, the artistic director and selector of STIFF.

Slobodanka Mišković greeted the attendees and expressed satisfaction that Art-kino is hosting STIFF, a place that brings together young people. She emphasized that this festival testifies to the future of film and culture in Rijeka, as students, year after year, narrate in a new way through their works and participate. She also highlighted that events like these make the cinema an institution that every cinema should be – a place of meeting and collaboration. Marta Žuvić concluded that STIFF proves that the University of Rijeka is a different place for studying and living because, in addition to academic success, it encourages cultural and social engagement. She thanked the Student Cultural Center, its director Jana Ažić, and the students for their excellent organization and content, as well as Art-kino and Filmaktiv. Sonja Šišić praised the spirit of creativity and innovation of STIFF and emphasized that the County is particularly happy to support young people from Rijeka, Croatia, and international students. She congratulated everyone who contributed to the 10th STIFF. Maša Drndić reflected on the past 10 years marked by 450 beautiful films, 50 awards, 7 multimedia exhibitions, all with many guests and good entertainment – a decade of the best student films.

The program began with the screening of three films under the title Aberrations from a total of 650 submissions and 40 selected films. This category symbolically represents the changes that occurred in the past decade and human reactions to them, including perseverance. Aberrations invited the audience to try a different approach, a distant perspective that separates from problems but connects with the environment. The films shown were directed by filmmakers from Russia, Hungary, and Slovakia. Vera Vasileva filmed a thirty-minute story about a young mechanic searching for a way to prevent her terminally ill father from suicide, titled Red, Yellow, Green. Olivér Hegyi presented his animated work The Garden of Heart about the existential crisis of a young artist with low self-esteem on the day of the entrance exam at the academy. Matej Klucik documented the story titled After the Wedding, where partners living together for 12 years face a life event – marriage, and the question of how to reconcile their personal passions for collecting and everyday shared life.

The program continued at 9:00 PM in the SKC gallery, where the exhibition Démodé by the selection team composed of Katarina Erak, Ema Puceković, Toni Buškulić, Dominik Višnjić, Katarina Kožul, under the mentorship of Elena Apostolovski, was opened. The theme of the exhibition is in line with the celebration of the STIFF Decade – transience and changes over the past decade, and some of the situations and questions that become more pronounced over the years. The celebration of 10 years of work and imagination of students in the field of art and culture continues until November 26, 2023, with a rich program in Art-kino and the SKC Gallery, including exhibitions, workshops, and discussions. On Saturday, November 25, 2023, an after-party is expected at the Nemo club with Luka Barbić (TBF, Banana Sound).

The program of the 10th STIFF is free for all visitors and is supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), the City of Rijeka, the Primorsko-Gorski Kotar County, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the Goethe Institute, Piko and Aura, and the work of the Filmaktiv association is supported by the Kultura Nova Foundation and the National Foundation for the Development of Civil Society.