The jury of the 71st Venice International Film Festival’s Horizons section has presented the best actor in a leading role award to Emir Hadžihafizbegović for his part in the film These Are the Rules, written and directed by Ognjen Sviličić, who said in Venice: ‘We have confirmed that Croatian film is sturdy and ready for big things.’

At the Venice Film Market, RE-ACT was presented today (Regional Audiovisual Cooperation and Training), an initiative aiming to stimulate the development and co-funding of joint feature-length co-productions and film education and networking between Slovenia, Croatia and the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Artist, filmmaker and professor Alexander Stewart is working on his new film in Zagreb.

The Ukrainian film The Tribe, written and directed by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy won the 17th Motovun Film Festival.

The programme of the 67th Locarno Film Festival, taking place 6-16 August, includes two Croatian films – the minority co-production Cure – The Life of Another by Andrea Štaka in the international competition, and the majority co-production Island of Love by Jasmila Žbanić in the Piazza Grande non-competition programme. These will also be both films’ world premieres.

The feature fiction film These Are the Rules, written and directed by Ognjen Sviličić, has been included in the Horizons competition at the 71st International Film Festival in Venice.

New Croatian films are poised for recognition at international festivals, says Nick Holdsworth for the leading film and showbiz magazine The Hollywood Reporter.

A total of 10 Croatian films has been selected for the 20th Sarajevo Film Festival programme, which is taking place this year between 15 and 23 August at eight locations around the Bosnian and Herzegovinian capital. The programme includes two Croatian feature live action films, six documentary films and two short live action films.

The action war film Number 55 by Kristijan Milić, produced by HRT, with its eight Golden Arenas – for best film, director, screenplay, editing, set design, costume design, make-up and special effects – is the absolute winner of the 61st Pula Film Festival. Best actress and actor are Areta Ćurković for Happy Endings and Ivo Gregurević for The Reaper, and Ivan Sikavica’s So Not You won the best short film award.

The 13th International Documentary and Short Film Festival DokuFest takes place in Prizren, Kosovo 16-24 August, and it is screening a total of eight Croatian films – seven in competition and one in the special programme.

At the 17th edition of Motovun Film Festival, taking place once again this year at 227 metres of altitude, in addition to the regular film programme visitors can expect many novelties like spreading to another festival location – Buzet. This is thus a record-breaking year for Motovun by the number of screened films. Motovun’s programme takes place 26-30 July, and Buzet’s programme begins the day before and ends on 3 August.

Cure by Swiss-Croatian director Andrea Štaka will have its international premiere in the Competition Programme of the 20th Sarajevo Film Festival, which takes place August 15- 23. The Chicken by Una Gunjak and Manjača by Tin Žanić will compete in the Short Film Competition, while the Croatian film Love Island by Jasmila Žbanić will have its regional premiere at the Open Air non-competition programme.

The Croatian Audiovisual Centre yesterday gathered representatives of the media and Croatian filmmakers to present the 2013 Activities’ Report – an issue providing a detailed insight into the Centre’s diverse activities and painting a comprehensive picture of the Croatian film industry.

The competition of the 49th edition of the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival, taking place 4-12 July, includes two Croatian titles. The Croatian minority co-production Monument to Michael Jackson by Darko Lungulov competes in the East of the West category, and Boris Poljak’s Autofocus in documentary competition.

The feature-length documentary film Mitch – A Diary of a Schizophrenic, directed by Damir Čučić, will have its world premiere in the international competition of FIDMarseille.

At the anniversary edition of the Festroia International Film Festival, which took place 6-15 June in Setúbal, Portugal, the comedy The Priest’s Children by Vinko Brešan won the Golden Dolphin Award for best film.

Fantastic Zagreb Film Festival, the only fantastic film festival in the region, brings special cinematic treats through the end of June and the beginning of July to all film buffs and fantastic fans. In nine days of the Festival, fans of fantastic and related genres – science fiction, horror, thriller, mystery, experimental etc. will get to watch a number of intriguing and interesting films from both new and acknowledged authors.

The Annecy International Animation Festival takes place from 9th to 14th of June in a picturesque French city of Annecy which grows every year for more than 7 thousand people from the world of animated film.

8th JFF – Jewish Film Festival or Festival of Tolerance is taking place from 18 to 24 May in Zagreb. The Jewish Film Festival Zagreb Association is a non-profit organization that has from its very beginnings in 2008 recognized the need to offer additional enriched features to culture and the outer-institutional education of citizens.

The 67th edition of the Cannes Film Festival takes place 14-25 May. The short film The Chicken is screened in the 53rd Critics’ Week competition, and producer Vanja Jambrović and the Slovenian-Croatian co-production Houston, We Have a Problem take part in the festival industry section’s development programmes.

The Slovak-Czech-Croatian co-production Velvet Terrorists directed by Peter Kerekes, Pavol Pekarcík and Ivan Ostrochovský, which was previously awarded at the Karlovy Vary IFF and Berlinale, will be screened in the official program of the Canadian International Documentary Film Festival Hot Docs in Toronto.

Documentary film Global Shopping Village directed by Ulli Gladik, produced by Golden Girls Filmproduction & Filmservices GmbH (Austria), in co-production with Nukleus film, will have its world premiere on April 27, 2014 (1pm, City 2) at the Crossing Europe Film Festival in Linz.

Animation goes MSU will present 16 various site-specific national and international animated works from all around the world. The opening of screenings on MSU's media facade is scheduled for May 23 at 8pm. The screenings will be available to passers-by until the closing of the festival, i.e. 8 June.

The German-Croatian co-production The Chicken, written and directed by Una Gunjak, has been selected for the short film competition at the International Critics’ Week, whose 53rd edition takes place 15-23 May during the Cannes Film Festival. The Croatian co-producer of The Chicken is Siniša Juričić from Nukleus film.

The 24th World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb 2014, short film edition, takes place between 3 and 8 June 2014 at Europa, Tuškanac and Cineplexx Kaptol Centre theatres.

Kastav Film Festival has launched it's Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign and has opened applications for films. It is the sixth time the event has been put on and this time Kastav Film Festival is asking for public help via the indiegogo.com crowdfunding platform.

Animafest International selection committees have finished their work and out of 1725 short films from 73 countries they have selected 144 film titles for Animafest 2014 competition and panorama programs.

Bonobostudio presents on  Thursday, April 17th at 7 PM in Kino Europa in Zagreb the premiere screening of two new films from Bonobostudio production – Hunger by Petra Zlonoga and Simulacra by Ivana Bošnjak and Thomas Johnson.

The Tiniest by Tomislav Šoban and We The People by Dalibor Martinis will be screened in the official selection of the 60th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

Animated film Slom by David Lovrić has been selected for the graduation films competition program at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival which is set to take place from 9 to 14 June in France.

Sanja Marjanović has been nominated with her socumentary film BFF in the category best editing by BAFTA’s Scottish branch. Awarding process will take place on 25 March in Glasgow.

Kinookus is a partner in the project Young European Cinema on the Move financed by EU and made in cooperation with the European Parliament, RIFF Festival in Rome and MEDIT Festival in Ciudadella de Menorca.

Velvet Terrorists / Zamatovi teroristi, documentary feature film by directors trio Pavol Pekarčík, Ivan Ostrochovský and Peter Kerekes, co-produced between Slovakia, Czech Rep. and Croatia, to be screened in Berlinale Forum at 64th Berlin International Film Festival

One of the largest European and world film festivals, the 64th Berlin International Film Festival takes place 6-16 February 2014. The feature-length documentary film Velvet Terrorists by Peter Kerekes, Pavol Pekarčík and Ivan Ostrochovský made in Slovakian-Czech-Croatian co-production, will be shown in the FORUM programme.

Busta Rhymes has been announced as headline act of the Outlook music festival that will take place from 3 to 7 September this year in western Croatian town of Pula.

The 36th edition of the International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand takes place between 31 January and 8 February. Two animated films by Croatian authors will be screened in festival's programmes: the award-winning Father, and Hidden Talent by Miran Miošić.

Katrin Novaković’s film Out from the Deep was earlier this month screened in the programme of Trieste Film Festival.

The tenth anniversary edition of ZagrebDox takes place from 23 February to 2 March at Zagreb’s Cineplexx Kaptol Centre theatre. A rich festival line-up once again this year presents over 150 documentary stories from all four corners of the world.

Four Croatian films will be screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, whose 43rd edition takes place between 22 January and 2 February 2014. Tatjana Božić’s Happily Ever After will have a world premiere in the feature fiction film competition, and the festival will also present Sonja Tarokić’s On Shaky Ground, Dane Komljen’s Tiny Bird and Petra Seliškar’s Mama Europa.

The filming of the third season of the TV series Borgia is continuing in the ancient Croatian town of Dubrovnik. The filming in the historical city centre and the nearby areas of Lokrum and Trsteno will last up to 21 January. The main role in the TV series is played by American actor John Doman.

Croatian respectful multimedia artist and cinematographer Ivan Ladislav Galeta passed away on 7 January in Zagreb.

After two years of touring national and international festivals, highly acclaimed documentary "Family Meals" directed by Dana Budisavljević is now available on DVD.

Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People takes place in Athens for 16 years featuring diverse competition programs – features, short fiction, animation and a special section dedicated to children’s film.

The Festival of Europen Film Les Arcs is taking place from 14 to 21 December will present  five Croatian films and four films /projects made in the coproduction with European and regional partners currently in development phase.

On Saturday, 21 December, 25 independent cinemas in 23 Croatian cities and towns will host The Shortest Day in the Year 21/12 – First Short Film Marathon. This is a part of the international event Le jour le plus Court (The Shortest Day), launched in France and promoting short film production on the winter solstice.

The Dutch-Croatian documentary co-production Happily Ever After, directed by Tatjana Božić (Factum) was selected for the competition of the prestigious International Rotterdam Film Festival, whose 43rd edition takes place 22 January thru 2 February 2014.

The Croatian minority co-production Circles, directed by Srđan Golubović and written by Srđan Koljević and Melina Pota Koljević, was nominated for the Satellite Award in the best foreign film category. The award is presented by the International Press Academy with a seat in Los Angeles, considered one of the most reliable indicators for potential Oscar nominations.

Hrvoje Hribar, film director and currently Director of the Croatian Audio-Visual Centre is the recipient of the French  National Award - Order of Arts and Letters selected by French Minister of Culture Aurélie Filippetti. Hribar was selected for his contributions to intercultural cooperation and strengthening connections between Croatian and French audio-visual sector.

Films by Bernandin Modrić and Branko Schmidt will be screened at the 17th Festival of European Independent Film 'Euro-in film' which is set to take place in Novi Sad from 4 to 28 December.

In just 18 days The Brave Adventures of a Little Shoemaker became the most watched Croatian children’s fiction film since the independence – seen by the total of 84,762 viewers.