60 years since winning an Oscar – Dušan Vukotić celebrated at Bokun festival

60 years since Dušan Vukotić won an Oscar to be celebrated at Bokun festival

Bokun festival – festival of silent film and other senses is a multimedia project of the Association for the Promotion of Culture, Film Art, Travel, Domestic and Foreign Cuisine “Gozba”, which with the help of versatile artists, composers, singers, actors, discovers new dimensions of film and music art.

With the slogan “Culture for the people”, the festival has been held in Malarija Park in the old UNESCO core of Trogir for four years. Entrance is free. Every year it is dedicated to the work of one person from the world of art who marked the 20th century with their work.

So far, the work of Ivo Tijardović, Salvador Dali, Buster Keaton and Frida Kahlo has been presented. A special feature of the Bokun festival is that new music is composed for each film, which is premiered on the festival evenings.

The fifth edition of the Bokun festival, which will be held from Wednesday 7 to Saturday 10 September, is dedicated to the work of Dušan Vukotić (1927-1998), a Croatian animator and director who won a prestigious Oscar award 60 years ago for his animated film “Surrogate”.

Dušan Vukotić

In the two main festival evenings on September 9 and 10, 2022, 11 of Vukotić’s animated films created in the period from 1951 to 1961 will be shown. Most of the films will be shown with original music, while for four the composer Deni Pjanić made a musical improvisation on the theme from the films, which his fellow musicians will play live.

The star of both evenings will of course be the Oscar winner, the film “Surrogate”, and the Trogir audience will be able to see, among other films by Vukotić in Malarija Park: “Cow on the Moon”, “Piccolo”, “Naughty Robot”, “Concert for a Machine Gun”, ” How Kićo was born”, “Cowboy Jimmy”.

Along with the screening of animated films, the story of Vukotić’s animations will also be presented through other forms of art – pantomime, painting, singing. 

An exhibition of Trogir sculptor Vilim Halbarth, who will create inspired by “Surrogate”, will also be set up in the park. Also, the Association “Dušan Vukotić” brings to Trogir the exhibition “Dušan Vukotić: Svaštara ili 1927 – 1962 – 2022” author and president of the Association Veljko Krulčić. 

Actor and UMAS professor Alen Čelić will present the atmosphere of “Surrogate” with stage movement, while painter Stanislav Huljić, inspired by Vukotić’s work, will paint during the two festival evenings. As in previous years, music from the ’50s and ’60s of the last century, when “Surrogat” was created, will be chosen by DJ Damir Duplančić Dupli.

Vukotić, affectionately known as Vud, adored the stars and the universe and often dealt with these topics in his long and successful career. Thanks to the Mosor Star Village and Tomislav Nikolic at the helm, in honour of Vud, the audience will be able to look at the stars through a telescope during the two main festival evenings on September 9 and 10.

As an announcement to the main festival program, on Wednesday and Thursday, September 7 and 8, there will be two film evenings also dedicated to Vukotić. In the first, in cooperation with The Walt Disney Company, the feature-length animated film of the American production “Duša” (2020) directed by Pete Docter will be shown, who dedicated two characters from the film to Oscar winner Vukotić and his film “Surrogate”.

Vukotić’s “Guests from the Galaxy”, the first domestic science fiction feature film from 1981, will be shown on Thursday. The main roles in the film are played by Ksenija Prohaska, Žarko Potočnjak and the then boy Rene Bitorajac. As every year, September in Trogir is reserved for film and film music. For the fifth year in a row, a temporary art installation on a ship’s sail will be exhibited in the old city centre.

This year, the character of Surrogate will be smiling from the main facade of the Museum of the City of Trogir. The art installation will be released from the Museum on Tuesday, September 6, the day before the start of the 5th edition of the Bokun Festival.

The commemoration of 60 years since winning the Oscar would not be as significant if the real statuette of the Oscar won by Dušan Vukotić in 1962 did not come to Trogir. The golden statuette was donated to the festival by the heirs of the famous animator and director and will be exhibited in the atrium of the Trogir City Museum from September 6 to 11.

Dušan Vukotić with his Oscar

Since Dušan Vukotić was originally a Montenegrin, this year the festival was supported by the National Association of Montenegrins of Croatia.

Along with Bokun, the main partner of the festival, as every year, is the Tourist Board of Trogir, and the City of Trogir, the Croatian Audiovisual Center, The Walt Disney Company, the Museum of the City of Trogir, the Split Mediterranean Film Festival, the Dušan Vukotić Association, Fox & His Friends Records, Zvjezdano selo Mosor, Zagreb film, Vrata o’ grada restaurant, inDEKS room and North Sails.