Zagreb Film Festival becomes qualifying festival for prestigious European Film Awards

(Photo: Zagreb Film Festival)

Zagreb Film Festival (ZFF) joins European Film Academy Short Film Network comprised of about 30 European festivals including Cannes, Berlin and Venice

Ahead of its 22nd edition, which takes place 4 – 10 November 2024, the Zagreb Film Festival has joined the European Film Academy Short Film Network, a pan-European network of film festivals selecting a candidate for the European Film Awards in the Short Film category.

The network consists of thirty reputable European festivals, including Berlin, Cannes and Venice.

The European Film Awards are the European equivalent of the Academy Awards, or the Oscars, and the highest professional recognition in Europe. Since its founding, the European Film Academy has recognised the exceptional achievements of established directors while at the same time supporting and promoting short films, whose authors are often newcomers.

The films nominated for the Best European Short Film are selected by members of the European Film Academy Short Film Network, which consists of 30 festivals from 24 countries. One film from the (international) short film competition is selected at each of the festivals, of which 5 films get nominated the European Film Award. The finalists are presented to the 5,000 members of the European Film Academy, whose votes decide the winner.

The 22nd ZFF short film jury composed of: Daniel Soares (Portugal), two-time ZFF laureate (Please, Make It Work – Golden Pram 2023, What Remains – Special Mention 2022); David Gašo (Croatia), last year’s Checkers program winner, Short Cut Grass, and festival selector Yulia Serdyukova (Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg) will choose their favourite among the films in the program.

The short film contender gets a chance to enter the final race and win the European Film Award. The 38th European Film Awards will be held in mid-January 2026.

As in the previous editions, the international short film competition of the Zagreb Film Festival will showcase ten works. Some of them had their world premieres at prestigious world festivals, such as the British-French Marion, the story of the only female bullfighter in France, directed by Joe Weiland and Finn Constantine, which premiere in Venice, and the German-Russian Hymn of the Plague by the Ataka51 collective, which premiered in Locarno.

Two films from the short film competition will have their world premieres at the Zagreb Film Festival. These are Belgian short The Kids Will be Alright by Sigi van Roy and Tit for Tat by the Greek director Kyriakos Kollias. The national short film competition, the Checkers program, will feature ten works by domestic authors.

More information about the upcoming edition of Zagreb Film Festival is available on the official website.