Motovun Film Festival, Istria, Croatia

Presentation

Motovun Film Festival is the name of both an event and the company behind it. Motovun Film Festival Ltd is an independent legal entity, which endeavours to present the main trends and tendencies in the contemporary world cinema and to broaden creative contacts between international and Croatian filmmakers. The legal frames of a 'limited company' suit best the activities of Motovun Film Festival, which include:

• festival organisation
• film production
• film distribution

Reasons for inclusion in BO Profiles directory:
Since its foundation and through its further rapid development in less than two years of its existence (the organisation was founded only in September 1998) Motovun Film Festival Ltd represents an atypical example of a cultural institution in Croatian context: Despite the unfavourable circumstances due to a very difficult political and economic period in the country Motovun Film Festival Ltd managed not only to survive but also to broaden its activities and consequently impose itself as one of the leading and most successful cultural institutions in Croatia. The reasons for that lie mainly in three basic factors:

• its program and aims were exactly matching the cultural needs in the country at a given moment
• alternative forms of financing
• ingenious, elaborate and long-term marketing strategy

The festival

Context:
At the time the festival was launched the Croatian film landscape was characterised by a partial and biased approach in distribution policy of Croatian distributors, needless to say in favour of grand commercial productions. To put it briefly, as it is mainly the case in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Hollywood majors have forced out everything else that the world of motion pictures produces for the big screen. To turn back, at least seemingly, to the natural course of evolution, and by doing so to break through our film isolation, we have decided to organise the international film festival in Croatia, named The Motovun Film Festival.

The importance of the festivals as popular and privileged places in the promotion and circulation of films and audio-visual culture has considerably increased in recent years. With an adequate support, some of them have become a crucial channel for distributing an alternative circuit of productions, at a time when the film industry is more than ever threatened by American blockbusters. The socio-economic impact of some festivals in Europe is therefore significant and an intelligent selection approach may allow them to raise the public's awareness of still existing motion pictures diversity.

Motovun - explanation of choice:
Istria, the Mediterranean region of Croatia, is a fairyland, rich in ancient towns. Motovun is certainly one of the most beautiful. It is situated on the top of a hill above the river Mirna and is surrounded by vineyards, which since the time of ancient Rome have been the source of the famous wine, Malvazija. Climbing the hillside one reaches the fortified maze of criss-crossing narrow streets. The beauty and significant placement (near Slovenian, Italian and Austrian border) of the site gave rise to the idea of culturally exploiting it.

The Motovun Film Festival takes place in Motovun's main town square and in its only motion picture theatre, which for the occasion was reopened after more than 20 years of inactivity. Hence the Motovun Festival reintroduced cinema to an area where it had completely disappeared, and to a public it no longer reached, giving a new dimension to the notion of cultural tourism, harmoniously integrated into the life of the region.

The festival is in a way a continuation of another project of the International film school for Central European film makers which has been established in Croatia for the last 5 years under the name of Imaginary Academy in the wonderful village of Istria. The Imaginary Academy was founded by film maker Rajko Grlić (among others) in order to provide a serious training for producers, writers and directors from countries where the film infrastructure after the fall of the Berlin wall has more or less fallen apart. Funded by the Croatian Soros Foundation the school brings together the best of eastern young film talent - with the best of western teachers and professors. In the past several years some Austrian students also attended the school.

As the school has matured, we have decided to follow another model - that of Sundance Institute which after having developed its successful lab for independent American film makers it started the film festival as a showcase and as a way of bringing the best of talent to the area.

For the first time, therefore, from August 1999 the Motovun International Film Festival was launched to run alongside the school.

Pula, the capital of the region traditionally hosts the festival of national cinematography while the neighbouring town, Oprtalj nourishes for year its "Film Weekend". In our opinion, The Motovun Film Festival is the next step in our endeavour to help the small country like Croatia to regain its cinematographic legs and to overcome its isolation.

Aims:
Considering all above stated facts and having in mind its primary goal which is to give back to independent film the dignity it merits, the aims of the International Motovun Festival could be structured around several axes which are as follows:

 

• offer to the Croatian public (professionals and large audience) a unique possibility to see in the country an exclusive selection of films, a sort of cinema alternative in comparison to what is mainly presented in our moving picture theatres. In that way we hope to widen the horizons of the audience and give them the liberty of selective choice.
• give to the international professional viewers a chance to get acquainted with the contemporary Croatian film production and consequently, try to overcome its marginalisation. For the young authors it would mean breaking through the limited development path of their career.
• gather around a punctual event a number of film professionals, national and international, in order to make it a privileged moment for a productive discussion, exchange of ideas and experience which could be beneficial to the further development of film production and distribution in Croatia.

In the long run, with the subsequent editions of the Motovun Festival we hope to approach wider issues and influence phenomena, which are only indirectly connected with the Festival:

 

• open policy to encourage and support the distribution of independent films (mainly European ) in collaboration with Cultural Institutes of different countries. Already two films presented at the festival were distributed in Croatian theatres, namely Serbian The Powder Keg by Goran Paskaljević and German Run Lola Run (the latter is distributed by the Motovun Film Festival Ltd). The distribution plan for 2000 includes titles as: Drifting Clouds by Aki Kaurismaki (Finland), Kikujiro by Takeshi Kitano (Japan) and Straight Story by David Lynch (USA).
• help to bring the international funds to Croatia, meant to support the new Croatian production, to encourage co-productions with European partners and collaboration with other South-Eastern European countries.
• introduce international professionals to the richness, variety and specificity of Istrian landscape and gradually transform Istria in a kind of exclusive "film destination" able to attract international production teams. It would consequently encourage international co-production and creation.

First Motovun Film Festival, 1999

Success of the first Motovun Film Festival established this event as a privileged moment in Croatia as to the promotion and distribution of independent international productions (feature and documentary) which, in general, rarely reach our theaters. In total 38 films were screened coming from about 10 different countries. Great audience response and enormous media attention from its very beginning (8000 spectators, around one hundred journalists, about 250 articles in national and international press, festival chronicles on main independent TV stations in Croatia, report on Dutch TV etc.) proved that there is a great interest for this kind of films in Croatia and that Motovun Film Festival could develop in the years to come into a crucial channel as to the circulation of an alternative circuit of productions in a time when the film industry is dominated more than ever by commercial productions.

For its first edition The Motovun Film Festival presented more than 30 films chosen upon their artistic and production quality and in accordance with the financial and infrastructure resources, with no specific genre or geographic limitations. The only condition for the films is to be produced in the last two years and as for the international selection never before released in Croatia.

In addition to the main international selection (central program of films awarded at world festivals) special programs of the first Motovun film festival were dedicated to: New Dutch Film, documentary film Made in Grožnjan and a selection of New Croatian Films. The only prize winning selection was the documentary Made in Grožnjan because it presented films made by students of the above mentioned Imaginary Academy coming from different parts of south eastern Europe.

Experience of filmmakers and producers from other countries, international contacts, productive discussion and exchange of ideas proved to be a necessity for the development of independent film in Croatia. For that reason festival hosted a number of acclaimed names of the international film scene: British producer and Oscar winner, Jeremy Thomas; Czech director, Juraj Jakubisko; Serbian director living in Paris, Dušan Makavejev; British producer and editor, Mike Downey; British Screen director, Simon Perry; French producers, Antoine and Martine de Clermont Tonnerre; Danish actor, Jesper Asholt; Serbian actor Bogdan Diklić; Bosnian director Pjer Žalica; Slovenian producer Daniel Hočevar; Dutch documentary director, Sonia Herman Dolz; Albanian documentary director, Fatmir Koci and many others. All guests expressed their satisfaction and pleasure with the festival, both in its qualitative and organisational aspect.

Apart from film projections, a successful round table discussion was organised around the topic "Cinema of the 21^st century - Europe vs. America".

The town also hosted two expositions: one of renowned Croatian artist Edo Murtić and the other presenting two local artists. Festival did not lack different celebrations, parties and concerts (so that, we are proud to say, the whole city lived with the festival during the five festive days.

Second Motovun Film Festival, 2000

The second festival was successfully brought to an end on August 5, 2000. According to the response from the audience and the media it was one of the leading cultural events this year in Croatia. During the 5 festival days around 20 000 spectators came, more than double of 1999. Mainly it was due to an elaborate marketing campaign and a high-quality program comprising 70 films coming from more than 15 different countries.

The films were grouped in several different programs as follows:
Main international program, consisting of award-winning long feature films, mainly in independeent world productions. The best film in this selection received the which ensured the film regular theatrical distribution in Croatian cinemas. This year by the decision of an international jury the Best Film Award entitled The Propeller of Motovun went to the British production Billy Elliot by Stephen Daldry. Since this film already has a Croatian distributor, by unanimous opinion of the Jury and consent of the awarded author Mr. Stephen Daldry, it was decided that the Japanese film Kikujiro, by Takeshi Kitano will be the one to be released in the cinemas.

Retrospective of New French Cinema, selected by French producers Antoine and Martine de Clermont Tonnerre, with the support of the French National Film Centre and French Embassy in Zagreb.

Selection of Croatian Documentary Film: projections of the best recent documentary films.

Motovun Online: international Internet festival of short feature film. On a special location with computers installed, the spectators had a non-stop daily access to film projections. In addition, through the Web page of the festival, the films are accessible to Internet film lovers worldwide.

Presentation of Croatian Film Festivals: projections of winning films from other film festivals in Croatia.

Festival Trailers Compilation Film: In collaboration with the film magazine Moving Pictures we have narrowed down the entries of the best international festivals intro trailers. (Those who are not familiar with this, should see it.) The compilation will receive its premier on special projections in Motovun and Moving Pictures will further sponsor the compilation to travel to a series of renowned festivals worldwide.

The festival also hosted about fifty film professionals and film critics from all around the world including: Swedish actors Bibi Andersson and Erland Josephson; Mike Downey, editor/producer at Moving Pictures; Simon Perry, director of British Screen; Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Icelandic film director; Stephen Daldry, British film director; British actors Chris Bisson, Ian Aspinall and Jamie Bell; German director Veit Helmer; Ron Holloway of Screen International; Jerry Payne, distributor KINOWELT Int.; Ludmila Cvikova, Programmer of Rotterdam Film Festival; producer Mal Watson and many others.

The festival's impact:

a. Benefits in film sector:

 

• A notable change can be remarked in the Croatian distribution policy. The percentage of European and independent productions in Croatian theatres has increased.
• The festival has increased creative contacts between Croatian and international filmmakers. Ideas and basic agreements for some independent projects currently in development were made.

b. Transdisciplinary project: benefits for other art sectors, cultural tourism

Due to the festival the old town cinema (which really has the looks and the spirit of the old Cinema Paradiso) was refurbished and reopened after almost 20 years of inactivity. The whole year round it will alternatively be used for film screenings (which have already started once a week), smaller theatre performances, design and fashion seminars etc.

The festival also contributed to the revaluation of the natural and historical heritage of Central Istria. During the festival the visitors far outnumbered the local population (of only 407 persons) and after the festival an increase in the number of tourists visiting Motovun has been noted. Moreover, city will be given additional financing for refurbishing medieval city walls.

 

Marketing Strategy:

The marketing strategy of the festival comprises:

 

• determining several media sponsors (press, radio and TV), concluding exclusive contracts with them and elaborating an adequate marketing campaign in order to assure the media covering of the overall festival process (preliminary phase, 5 days of the festival and the follow-up)
• as for the international promotion the magazine "Moving Pictures" sponsors regular ads announcing the festival and its activities
• regular updating of the Web site of the Festival (www.motovunfilmfestival.com)
• printed material related to the festival: catalogue, posters, daily reports.....

 

Financing

The limited company:

The Ltd company was founded by 5 partners who constitute the core staff of the festival. The inital capital corresponded to the required minimum needed for the registration of a limited compnay in Croatia, i.e. 2.600 Euros in cash and valuables. The average yearly turnover is about 280.000 Euros of which approx. 57% relates to the festival organisation, 35% to production and 8% to distribution. The three activities stated above are considered as three financially independent projects (with separate financial construction, with the exception of administrative and office costs which are shared) under the same umbrella of Motovun Film Festival Ltd.

 

The festival:

Regarding its goals and the impact it had the Motovun Film Festival was undoubtedly a project of national interest. However, in terms of financing, there was no funding from the state level (ministry of culture) which obviously is a paradox demanding further explanation:

• If we analyse the prevailing system of funding in cultural sector in the countries of central and eastern Europe we will find out that it is mainly based on the funds coming from the central state level which due to the difficulties in economies of these countries, can hardly satisfy the needs of numerous emerging cultural projects. Only recently analysis and revisions of cultural policies have been undertaken in order to conceive more adapted systems of funding based mainly on decentralisation of state power. Croatia in this case is no exception.
• At the time the festival was founded Croatia was still under the leadership of very centralist nationalist government and consequently the ministry of culture in a way boycotted the festival which had an international orientation, and which included in its program the films coming also from other ex-Yugoslav countries. The festival was regarded as a threat to the festival of national cinema which also takes place in Istria (Pula).

Eventually, the core funding for the festival came from the local authority, namely the Region of Istria which welcomed the project from its very beginning seeing in it an opportunity for further exploitation of cultural, historical and tourist potential of the region. In that way, from the financial point of view, the project was almost 80% regional investment, not as a consequence of the normal decentralisation tendencies but as a result of polarisation of interests between regional and state authorities.

Therefore the festival can be regarded as a project where cultural actors turned unfavourable political and economic paradigms to their benefit and demonstrated new ways of financing which in the future can serve as an example and in that way influence the legislative changes in cultural sector.

 

The other 20% of the budget came from minor public contributions: from Soros Foundation (through Centre for Drama Art and the above mentioned Imaginary Film Academy), Slovenian and Dutch Embassy in Zagreb and sponsors' donations (mainly services: hotel "Istarske toplice", DHL, Kodak etc.).

In 2000 the budgetary construction of the festival has undergone some major changes:

• After parliamentary elections in January 2000 the political situation has considerably changed so that the project was given support by the ministry of culture, within the limits of resources available
• Sponsorship as a means of financing had more prominent role since the success and publicity of the first festival attracted some major companies to be involved in the project (Croatian Telecomunications, KLM, Renault).

 

Table 1: Percentage composition of expenses of the festival in 2000

Office rent - 12 months	2,6
Office material and equipment purchase	0,6
Communications expenses (phone, fax, Internet,mailing)	3,3
Office and publicity material (design and printing)	1,8
Travel expenses (fare, accomod., per diem)	1,5
Design of the web site and web hosting	0,5
Unforeseen expenses	1,1
VAT 22%	2,5
Preparatory costs, subtotal	13,8
Rent of the screening equipment (5 days)	8,0
Transport of film prints	8,2
Guests (travel, catering, accomodation)	11,8
Vehicles rent (cars, delivery van, bus)	2,8
Festival staff (accomodation and catering).	7,0
Communication expenses	0,4
Promotional material (design, printing, production; catalogue, posters, program, trailer, chronicles)	6,0
Media marketing (papers, radio and TV)	3,1
Unforeseen expenses	1,2
VAT 22%	10,7
Festival organization, subtotal	59,1
Total fees	22,0
Personal Income Tax (on contracts, 20%)	4,4
Surtax on PIT (on contracts, 18%)	0,8
Personnel, subtotal	27,2
Grand total	100,0

The figures are not final. The grand total corresponds to approximately 170 thousand Euros.

 

 

Table 2: Percentage composition of revenues of the festival in 2000

Region of Istria	50,3
Croatian Ministry of Culture	12,5
Croatian Telecommunications	18,7
CNC (National French Institutte for Cinema)	3,1
BINA Istra	0,7
Japan Foundation	0,7
Generated income (tickets)	0,6
Sponsoring in kind (KLM, Renault, DHL etc.)	13,4
Total	100,0

The total revenue is 208 thousand Euros. In agreement with the sponsors, the surplus will be used for further development of the festival.

 

Distribution:

Great audience and media response to the first festival confirmed our belief that there is still an audience for independent film in Croatia. From that moment on our institution has undergone quite a speedy development and we decided to broaden our activities. It seemed a good idea to use the name and the label of the festival which had already high credentials from the audience in order to gradually start a limited and exclusive distribution of "art films" all year round and try to release titles which otherwise would have never been released theatrically on our territory.

Theatrical Distribution:

The first title in our distribution was the German film Run Lola Run (released December 9, 1999 and still touring Croatian theatres, 5000 spectators so far which is a great result given the context we are working in). A film acclaimed by critics, awarded at numerous festivals and at the same time a "crowd pleaser" seemed to be the right choice to begin with. Since the film was also screened at our festival it had already excellent publicity in Croatian media. Due to our exclusive contracts with leading Croatian papers, magazines, radio and TV stations the film was given adequate marketing long before it was released. In order to insure needed infrastructure for covering the Croatian territory we concluded a business agreement with the Discovery Film & Video Distributors company with 10 year experience which has a reputation of releasing films in independent production (e.g. Happiness by Todd Solondz) but also majors as New Line productions Austin Powers or Rush Hour. The use of our name and reputation in combination with their infrastructure and know how in film distribution seemed to be a perfect match for this kind of initiative.

There is no doubt that box-office success of our films is one of our main goals. However, given the particularly difficult situation on Croatian market, our primarily policy in the long run is to educate the audience and to form faithful public who will know that we are presenting quality film achievements.

Video Releases:

As previously mentioned, due to hard situation on the market and highly commercial distribution policy of Croatian distributors a long period of independent and European productions simply does not exist either on the market or in the memory of our audience. To make up for this gap we decided to release new video editions, which will differ in content, packaging and presentation from the usual video editions available on the market.

• The first video edition will be released next week. It is called No subtitles since it presents packages of 3 films made on the territory of Ex-Yugoslavia which due to political and economic situation cannot be found on the market. The first package presents three films by Rajko Grlić: That Summer of White Roses, Charuga and You Love Only Once (Grand Prix at Tokyo Film Festival). Next two packages will be dedicated to two other eminent authors from these territories: Krvavac and Makavejev.
• The other three-package video edition is in planning phase and it is going to present great authors in film history ( now we are preparing the release of some Kaurismaki's and Jarmush's titles).

Distribution marketing strategy:

 

• concluding contracts for media sponsorship for each title in our distribution (press conferences, publicity, press releases, critics reviews, prize-winning games prior to the actual release of the film
• compilation of the mailing list ( 7000 - 10 000 addresses) with an aim to build up a direct mailing system and a regular public for our films which will be personally informed about our future releases and projects
• unusual packaging and design of our video titles
• issuing of posters and flyers to promote the film
• organisation of accompanying events (expositions, concerts and receptions/parties) for premier screenings

The distribution branch of Motovun Film festival is conceived to be a self-sustaining activity. However, since the titles in our distribution are non-commercial films additional support is given by cultural institutes and Embassies of the countries the films are coming from, in terms of covering the costs of translation, subtitling and promotion.

Screening venues:

One of the great achievements of the company was refurbishing and equipping of the small cinema in Motovun which, thanks to the festival, was re-opened after more than 20 years of inactivity. When one takes into consideration the fact that we work in the country where there is a constant growing tendency of closing theatres the importance of this achievement gets its full sense.

We have in prospect opening of two more venues in Zagreb. One is a small theatre seating approximately 100 persons owned by Zagreb film, which is in good condition and could be re-opened after minor interventions.

The other venue is an open-air cinema in the centre of Zagreb, which has been abandoned and left to oblivion for a number of years. The negotiations with the City of Zagreb have already started in order to elaborate a reconstruction plan and to find partners for funding the project.

 

Production:

Production is the last but not the least activity of the Motovun Film Festival Company. Currently we are producing a documentary film entitled Croatia 2000 (about the recent elections in Croatia which brought the first shift of authority after Croatia had gained its independence. (The shooting phase has recently been completed.) We have two more titles in prospect (one documentary and the other long-feature).

 

Partners:

Motovun Film Festival Ltd has been carrying out its projects in collaboration and with support of a number of private and public partners. These include: Region of Istria, Open Society Institute, Ohio University, US Information Office / Croatia, Centre National de la Cinematographie / France, Jan Vrijman Fund (NL) a number of Embassies and Cultural Institutes of different countries, and several private sponsors.

From the year 2000, with the first shift of political authority since Croatia gained its independence we expect greater support and closer collaboration with the Croatian ministry of culture.

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Notes:
Rajko Grlić is one of the most prominent film directors in ex-Yugoslavia, whose works include "That Summer of White Roses", "Čaruga" and internationally awarded "You Love Only Once". Currently he is lecturer at the Film Department of Ohio Universsity (Athens/OH/USA).

Founding partners and actual proprietors of the company: Boris T. Matić, Festival Director; Rajko Grlić, Artistic Director (majority holders 35 % each) and Igor Mirković, Public Relations; Olinka Vištica, Festival Coordinator; Mike Downey, President of Council of Advisors; as well as the Bruketa & Žinić studio (responsible for the visual identity of the festival).