Difference between revisions of "Kino Otok - Isola Cinema Festival"

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Screening at the Manzioli square, Kino Otok - Isola Cinema Festival 2022. Author: Amadeja Smrekar

The Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival has been exploring the art of film since 2004, discovering various film expressions in the company of filmmakers and an audience of all generations. It focuses on world, European, and Slovenian auteur cinema. Each edition features a carefully curated non-competitive program, including around eighty films of all lengths, most of which are shown in Slovenia for the first time. The festival’s Mediterranean character is manifested in the balance between ease and temperament, which functions as its magic formula – whoever visits it wants to return again and again.

The main part of the Kino Otok - Isola Cinema Festival takes place at the beginning of June in Izola, while some of the screenings and meetings with filmmakers also occur in May and June at the Slovenian Cinematheque and Kinodvor City Cinema in Ljubljana, as well as at the art cinemas in Cerknica, Idrija, Sežana, and Tolmin.

Kino Otok - Isola Cinema Festival is organized by the Otok Cultural Institute and co-produced with the Izola Centre for Culture, Sport and Events, Slovenian Cinematheque, and Kinoatelje. Kinodvor Cinema and the Italian Self-managing National Community in Izola are main partners. It also collaborates with many other international festivals from its geographical or conceptual vicinity.

Festival sections

The festival’s programme structure is based on the distinct concept of non-competitiveness, where the focus of the audiences is exclusively on the diversity and richness of cinematic expression. The festival's film programme in Izola consists of roughly 11 sections: the main section, Arrigoni, showcases selected titles of European and world cinema with the potential to win the hearts and minds of the general audience. Films and directors presented in the Signals section distinguish themselves with highly authentic cinematic language. The Friends section consists of carte blanches given to distinguished European film critics, programmers, and filmmakers, who invite and present a film and its author(s). The Good Neighbours section is dedicated to the intriguing collective cinema evolution in our physical or symbolic vicinity. The Silvan’s Bay section is an open space for a wider experience of film through other forms of art. 35mm Cult-ure presents important films from film history in their original formats, as well as new films dedicated to the culture of analogue filmmaking and cinema-going. Home Sweet Home focuses on promoting Slovenian talent to the international festival community. Chiaro-Oscuro discloses themes that lurk in the shadows of everyday discourse. Europe 2.0 consists of a double bill including a restored film classic and a more contemporary film that resonate thematically. The short films section, Video on the Beach, is designed as a lively open platform for young filmmakers and provides a valuable overview of the latest developments in the independent scene. Submarine – Otok For Kids is dedicated to children, youth, families, as well as culture and film educators in Slovenia.

Screening of the Video on the Beach section, Kino Otok - Isola Cinema Festival 2014.

Workshops, lectures and other events

The development of an international professional audience has been one of the main strategic goals of the festival in the last decade. PRO Otok, a programme for film professionals and others interested in the film's journey from idea to screen and beyond, has fostered numerous collaborations with national and international partners, such as regional film centers, Creative Europe Desk Slovenia, Slovenian associations of film professionals, and film festivals beyond Slovenia. A residential workshop in a three-year cycle, FOCUS, was dedicated to less visible professions from the region, pairing up cinematographers and production designers, editors and sound designers, and make-up artists and costume designers. The latest major strands, such as Skill Transfer and the residential training programme Short Scene, have focused on young professional talents.

Film and poetry event at Largo pri Špini town square, Kino Otok - Isola Cinema Festival 2022. Author: Amadeja Smrekar

Musicians preparing for an evening performance at the Lighthouse, Kino Otok - Isola Cinema Festival 2022. Author: Amadeja Smrekar

A Return to la Isla Bonita of Film Festivals - 15th Kino Otok IFF by Otok on YouTube

International cooperation and guests

The festival places a great importance on its guests: should they be artists, professional partners, or journalists, the festival considers them simply as "friends". So one of the sections is dedicated to them – the Friends section. Friends of the Kino Otok Festival are given the chance to bring their friends and films – with no limitations.

Some notable guests of the festival from the past years are Alina Marazzi, Bill Morrison, Lisandro Alonso, Pablo Trapero, Abolfazl Jalili, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tsai Ming-liang, Nishtha Jain, William E. Jones, Albertina Carri, Darren Dean, Natalie Mansoux, Young Seok Noh, Mariano de Rosa, C.W. Winter, Giulano Ricci, etc.

Festival venues

The festival's principal screening venues are Izola's open-air cinema Arrigoni, the art cinema Odeon, the House of Culture, open-air town squares, and the forest by the beach. Evening gatherings take place next to the lighthouse by the beach, where the festival camp is set up. Before and after the festival in Izola, a selection of festival films is screened at Kinodvor Cinema and the Slovenian Cinematheque under the name Otok in Ljubljana, and at other art cinemas in northwestern Slovenia under the names Otok in Tolmin, Otok in Idrija, Otok in Sežana, and Otok in Cerknica.

Screening at Arrigoni open-air cinema, 16th Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival, 2020.