Letter from Šibenik: The Croatian International Film Festival Returns as the Festival Circuit’s Most Intimate Historic Stage
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- In Šibenik’s centuries-old square beside a UNESCO-listed cathedral, the Croatian International Film Festival turns a historic Adriatic backdrop into one of the circuit’s most intimate red-carpet stages.
- Now in its third year and expanded to five days, the woman-led festival drew more than 1,200 submissions from over 100 countries, opening with a triumphant Billie Jean King documentary.
- Screenings and student workshops unfold across fortress walls, cobblestone streets and a 150-year-old national theater, turning Šibenik into a living dialogue between past and present for global filmmakers.
While many of the world’s most well-known film festivals take place in cities with rich historical backgrounds, few seem to take direct advantage of that history to add atmospheric drama to the proceedings; those that do — Terromena and Locarno come to mind — fill vast squares and amphitheaters seating thousands for their screenings. So it was with great delight that I attended the enchanting and intimate opening night of the third annual Croatian International Film Festival in the Square of the Republic of Croatia (Trg Republike Hrvatske) in Šibenik, Croatia at the end of July.
On a balmy night typical of the Dalmatian Coast in summer, the red carpet came alive just as the sun was setting over the Šibenik harbor and the Adriatic beyond. With searchlights twirling and both the square and the UNESCO-listed St. James Cathedral (a casual 600 years old!) beautifully illuminated, the excitement was palpable even beyond those who had tickets for the event. Crowds of locals and tourists alike came up the stone steps to see what was happening in this relatively quiet section of the old town. One of the cutest memories of the evening, in fact, was the sight of children and families coming on to the red carpet after the crowd had moved into the square to snap photos and selfies in front of this very ‘Hollywood’ scene.
As it has done the last two years of the festival, the setting did a lot of the heavy lifting in the atmosphere department. On the opening night of this third installment, however, Trg Republike Hrvatske was doing something it’s never done before: going live. The opening ceremony, hosted by Emmy Award-winning CBS Los Angeles meteorologist Marina Jurica,
was streamed live on the L.A. Times homepage, carrying the scene from one of Europe’s oldest cities to audiences across the Atlantic: all that stone, history and Adriatic air, plus one very impressive traditional Klapa performance, beautiful and haunting as it echoed across the square. It was a showcase to the world of a festival that’s figured out exactly what it wants to be.
The sense of this festival’s arrival onto the international stage has been building for some time. Ella Mische, the Croatian-American actress-turned-producer who founded CIFF three years ago, says this edition felt different, not only for the audience but behind the scenes as well. Submissions from more than 100 countries came in this year, over 1,200 in total. It was the most competitive field the festival has seen, and reached without any paid advertising.
It was the quality of the work, she says, not just the volume, that pushed the festival to stretch from four days to five this year. “The biggest difference in year three wasn’t simply the number of submissions we received, but the extraordinary quality of the films,” Mische told Business by L.A. Times Studios. “Our jury had an incredibly difficult time narrowing down the selection.”
The opening film was an indicator that this is a festival that means business. “Give Me the Ball,” a powerful and triumphant Billie Jean King documentary co-directed by Oscar-nominated filmmakers Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff, launched the festival alongside a personal video message from King herself. Mische intentionally seeks a film led by a woman of power to anchor each year’s programming, and the choice certainly landed. Despite long journeys by many to reach the festival, the inspirational and feisty documentary seemed to strike a jolt of energy into the crowd — a lively after-party adjacent the square took place immediately after, with the festivities then continuing late into the night at the CIFF offices a short walk away down the ancient cobblestone paths. As the boisterous procession moved along from point A to point B — actors, producers and attendees — I couldn’t help but smile, feeling like I had stepped straight into a scene out of a Fellini film. It was exactly the type of magical moment a town like Šibenik invites.
Indeed, a true highlight of the festival was having the opportunity to be introduced to and spend time in Šibenik. Whether attending the outdoor screenings by night or exploring all the town has to offer by day, I was constantly in awe of the layers upon layers of history that exist intertwined with the beautiful beaches, fresh seafood and wonderful people that rival any of the world’s top tourist destinations. It’s a combination that Mische says goes to the core of what CIFF is doing.
“We are bringing contemporary filmmakers, new technologies, emerging voices and conversations about the future of cinema into spaces that have witnessed centuries of history,” she said.
The city’s mayor, Željko Burić, who also gave opening night remarks, fully concurred. “Bringing filmmakers from around the world into a city where centuries of history, extraordinary architecture, the Adriatic and contemporary culture coexist creates a unique dialogue between past and present,” he said.
During the weekend I got to spend time with Bonnie Voland, who’s worked in film marketing and publicity and has been going to film festivals both major and minor for more than 40 years. She led a panel at this year’s CIFF on festival strategy, and came away impressed by something specific about how the programming worked in this setting. “Seeing films in the town’s theaters and its historic square with film professionals and local audiences attending was a great way to see how films played,” she said. It was her first year at CIFF, but she’s already planning a return visit.
Away from the main stages, the student programming expanded in a way that matters to Mische as much as anything on the feature lineup. Her work with young filmmakers actually predates the festival itself — she was invited to teach a film and acting class at the International School Harfa in Split, which evolved into a “Script to Screen” intensive where students write, cast each other in and shoot a short film in a single day. The first short they made, “The Missing Teacher,” had its premiere at CIFF 2024. That led to a dedicated Student Short Film Corner, open to young filmmakers across Croatia and beyond, with a particular focus on reaching kids who don’t otherwise have access to these kinds of programs. “I wanted the kids to continue to dream, and to dare to dream that bigger is possible if they put their mind to it,” Mische said.
This year the workshops moved inside the Croatian National Theatre of Šibenik, the 150-year-old neoclassical building (almost new by Šibenik’s standards) at the heart of the old town that the city’s own citizens funded and built in 1870. The location helped to lend a particular dramatic weight to what was happening on the stage. Actor and director Stefano Da Fré led sessions there alongside fellow instructor Collen Doyle. “They weren’t simply learning acting techniques — they were discovering their own creativity, learning how to trust themselves and take chances on perhaps being silly in order to create something,” Da Fré said. “There was something incredibly powerful about watching a new generation find their voices on that historic stage.”
Returning to the festival programming, the beautiful town square wasn’t the only outdoor historical stage utilized over the weekend. Fortress Barone, perched high above the city with jaw-dropping vistas of the Adriatic and the outlying islands of the area spread beneath it, hosted the closing night screenings. There to host a panel, I learned that, in addition to the old rule of never performing with pets or children (who steal the show) one must also never try to compete with a stunning Adriatic sunset. It was an unforgettable twilight hour of cocktails and conversation and taking it all in, before sitting down to interview documentary director and this year’s head of jury Barbara Miller. We discussed filming on location, a fitting topic for a city that has played a supporting role in quite a few projects, most notably Game of Thrones. As night fell and the (nearly) full moon rose above the fortress, we settled in to watch the charming “Ivanhoe” (one of my personal favorites of the festival, though it screened out of competition) and the stirring “To Kill a Nazi.”
The closing awards ceremony moved back inside the Croatian National Theatre — bringing five days of screenings and panels to a close in a setting that felt appropriate for the occasion. The international jury, helmed by Miller, honored films across six categories: “Give Me the Ball,” the Billie Jean King documentary, took Best International Film; Vanessa Roth won Best Director for “The Righteous Road Trip”; Diana Madison’s powerful and moving documentary “There’s No Place Like Home” earned Best First Feature; Giacomo Ravenna’s “Madonnina” won Best Story; Pablo Aragüés’s “Copeland” – the documentary portrait of Stewart Copeland (whose personal greeting had opened the festival) – took Best Music Score; and “Scream Soul Scream,” directed by Nikita Kuschev-Shvelov, won Best Short Film.
Earlier this year, walking Main Street at Sundance, Mische heard someone call out across the crowd: “Aren’t you the CIFF girl?” She turned around, beaming. That kind of recognition hasn’t come from advertising campaigns — it comes from filmmakers who keep showing up, year after year, to help a festival still in its infancy earn its reputation one edition at a time. “CIFF was created by filmmakers, for filmmakers,” she said. “Our goal is not simply to become bigger. It is to become more meaningful, more international and more valuable to the artists whose work we celebrate.”
