STIFF film festival selects around 40 films every year. Films are selected carefully and without compromise among a large number of submissions the festival receives from around the world. STIFF has a very carefully “structured” jury, working in teams; one for fiction films, one for documentaries and one for animation. Each jury team has three members; one filmmaker who had a film as part of the STIFF programme in previous years, one professional filmmaker and one film student. The purpose of this is for students to learn from the professionals and for Croatian filmmakers to connect and work with young international filmmakers, encouraging future collaborations and exchange of ideas.
The strong competition programme sets a demanding task in front of our jury, to award only one Best Fiction, Best Documentary and Best Animation film.
The jury can also decide to award a special mention to any outstanding works from the programme and the audiences play a big role by voting for the best film of their choice, giving out the Audience Award.
FICTION FILM JURY
Azedine Kasri
Azedine Kasri is a French and Algerian filmmaker. He started his career as an actor and played in several feature films. In 2017, he directed his first short film 507 Hours, and then attended La Fémis where he directed Territories, his second short film. In 2020 Azedine is writing his first feature film and is waiting for a new short movie The Kiss.
Nikica Zdunić
Nikica Zdunić gained her master’s degree in fiction film directing at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, and in law at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb. She is the author of several short films that have been screened and awarded internationally. Currently, she is finalising two short fiction films and developing an idea for a feature film scenario.
Ervin Pavleković
Ervin Pavleković gained his master’s degree in Croatian language and literature (UniRi) and in Communication, Culture and Media (Coventry University, UK). He is attending doctorate studies in interdisciplinary humanities (Zadar University). He was a PR director at East Wind Film Festival in 2018 (Coventry, UK). Currently, he is working as an associate in the department of Croatian language at the Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka and as a journalist associate for Novi List. He is writing film reviews and essays for Filmovi.hr, Ziher.hr, Novi List, and Croatian Film Chronicle.
DOCUMENTARY FILM JURY
Ivan Ramljak
Ivan Ramljak (born 1974) is a director, independent film curator, and film critic. Since 2013 he is the selector of the Short Tuesday program in Tuškanac cinema in Zagreb, and since 2016 he is the artistic director of Tabor Film Festival. So far he directed a dozen films which were screened at more than 70 festivals around the world and won numerous awards.
Ivan Grgur
Ivan Grgur was born on the day that Beach Boys’ Kokomo took first place on Billboard’s top list. He studied communicology and journalism in Venice, Trieste, and Lisbon. He earns a living writing in advertising. He is one of the founders of Indirect Art&Music Festival and Arena Open Humanitarian-Trash Spectacle in Umag. He hates coriander and melon, loves books and football. In 2019 he finished Restart’s school of documentary film and made his first short documentary Probably Dead. In 2020 he started his master’s degree in directing at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb.
Mihovil Burić
Mihovil Burić is a psychology graduate student in Rijeka. He participates in the organization of Psychology Film Evenings at the Faculty of Philosophy. He has a great interest in film and literature and is an amateur scriptwriter and short movie director.
ANIMATION FILM JURY
Antonija Veljačić
Antonija Veljačić is an independent animator based in Croatia. She studied Animation and new media at the Academy of fine arts in Zagreb. Since 2014. she worked on various animation projects, mostly 2D and puppet animation. She also runs a Small school of animation for children and adults with Zagreb film and does animation workshops all around Croatia.
Martin Smatana
Martin Smatana is a graduate of Animation Studies at FAMU Film School in Prague, Czech Republic. His debut movie Rosso Papavero (2015) had premiered at Berlinale 2015 and received 15 international awards. Martin’s last movie The Kite was selected to the semifinals of Student Oscar Academy Awards and was included in the Film Collection of MoMA (Museum of Modern Art in New York). So far the film was screened at more than 150 festivals and won 40 international awards, including Best Children Film at the Annecy festival.
Karla Drašković
Karla Drašković, after finishing the classical gymnasium in Zagreb, enrolled at Cultural studies in Rijeka. Currently, she is in her second year, watching films, people, and strolling on cultural events in Zagreb and Rijeka.
