A.A.C. Productions

A A C Productions Ltd Ljubljana was established in 1993 as one of the first (but not the first) independent film production companies in Slovenia. As many other film directors active at that time Igor Šterk also felt that having his own production company would offer him the best possible conditions to produce his own films. At first Šterk planned to use his company just for the production of his own films but later the A A C Productions was used also to produce some shorts by other directors. Among those are Vlado Škafar's short experimental film Stari Most (The Old Bridge, 1998), which was shot in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Sonja Prosenc's Nič novega, nič pretiranega (Free Spirited Friends, 2005) for example.

Šterk's features

Ekspres Ekspres - it's production year is 1995 but it was publicly premiered only two years later, in 1997 - is regarded by many as the film that marked the beginning of the renaissance of Slovene cinema in the mid 1990s. With it's international success it turned the attention of international audience towards Slovene cinema again. It won 15 international awards at film festivals (it is one of the most awarded films in the history of Slovene cinema), including Grand Prix (Golden Antigone), Audience and Critics Award in Montpellier (France), Audience and "Findling" Award in Cottbus (Germany), Grand Prix at Alpe Adria Festival in Trieste (Italy), Special Jury Award at the Molodist Film Festival in Kyiv (Ukraine) and in Tromso (Norwey), Coup de Coeur Award in Mons (Belgium) and Best foreign Film Award in Palić (Serbia), etc. With Ekspres Ekspres Slovene cinema also returned into the European film distribution network after more than 20 years of its absence as it was distributed in Germany during 1999-2000. It also was quite successful on the domestic front since it won several awards at the Festival of Slovene Film in Portorož (in 1997) - Best Director, Best Photography and Best Sound Awards, the FIPRESCI Award and the STOP Magazine Award for Best Actor (received by Grogor Baković) - and attracted a much bigger audience to cinemas as it was usual for Slovene films in the past 20 years (when Slovene films nearly lost its audience).

Šterk's second feature Ljubljana - made in 2002 - was the first Slovene film ever to be screened in the competition programme at the Rotterdam film festival. It run for the Tiger Award in 2002. Ljubljana was later selected also for many other important international festivals around the world (Karlovy Vary, Seattle, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Thessaloniki, Montpellier, etc) but it didn't won any international award. What concerns the domestic sphere it won two Vesna Awards (Best Photography and Best Actor for Gregor Zorc) at the 2002 Festival of Slovene Film in Portorož and it become Šterk's commercially most successul film. It is regularly included in retrospectives of contemporary Slovene film abroad (like at at the Austrian National Film Festival in Graz in March 2003 or at the Chennai International Film Festival in New Delhi in 2008).

Also Tuning, the third feature film by Igor Šterk, had an excellent festival start: it's world premiere was in the competition programme of the 40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2005. But it's biggest success came later, in November 2005, with the 54th International Film Festival in Mannheim-Heidelberg where Tuning received the Main Award for the Best Feature Film. After that it also received the Vesuvio Award for the Best Feature Film at Napoli Film Festival. It's festival career went on with screenings at festivals all over Europe and America: Montreal, Chicago, Edinburgh, Buenos Aires, Ghent (competition), Montpellier (competiton), Denver, Kerala, etc. At the 8th Festival of Slovene Film in 2005 it won the Vesna Award for Best Directing.

Šterk's last feature to date is 9:06. It was the absolute winner of the 2009 Festival of Slovene Film as it won a majority of official awards, all in all 9 Vesna Awards: Best Film, Best Directing, Best Screenplay, Best Photography, Best Music, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Actor (Igor Samobor), Best Supporting Actress (Silva Čušin). It's international career started at the Montreal Film Festival with it's international premiere and continued with the screening in the competition programme of the Montpelier Film Festival.

External links

9:06 Official website

Review of 9:06 (from Quite Earth website)

Review of Tuning (from Variety website)

A.A.C. Productions

Šterk's features

See also

External links

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