For the most part, the film program comprises extraordinary, mainly awarded, feature, documentary and short films on the subject of the Holocaust and tolerance, while the evening screenings are mainly reserved for more recent productions that deal with contemporary life situations closely related to the theme of the Festival. The program is composed of around 60 films of Croatian, regional, European, Israeli and generally international production.
These films are chosen from a pre-selection according to their synopses, awards and reviews from reputable film festivals, portals and magazines. During the past few years, the selection segment comprised films that have either applied or have been directly invited by the Festival. Each year, this selection includes around 300 films.
The program selection is conducted by the Festival’s President Branko Lustig and the Festival Director Nataša Popović, while for certain program segments we turn to the advice of the esteemed Croatian director, Professor Branko Ivanda. As for program advisors from abroad, we should certainly point out the Iranian-American director Kayvan Mashayekh for American films, and Mrs. Vesna Domany Hardy and London historian and cultural dignitary Mr. Malcolm Scott Hardy for European films.
Since its first edition, the Festival included more and more films with each new edition; in the first edition, the total number of films was 12, in the second 20 (along with screening 11 selected films at the first edition of the Zagreb-Sarajevo Jewish Film Festival, and 4 films at the first edition of the Belgrade Jewish Film Day), in the third 27 films, in the fourth 40, while the fifth and sixth editions comprised a total of 54 films. In 2013, that number rose in Zagreb to 58 films of all genres, while in Rijeka and Sarajevo we screened a reduced opus of the edition held in Zagreb.
From its third edition, the Festival defined a theme according to which the program was to be structured – thus, the theme of the third edition was “Children – victims of the Holocaust and wars”, the fourth edition covered “the Righteous among Nations”, the fifth “Women in the Holocaust”. After recognizing the message its faithful audience obviously conveyed, the Festival has from its 6th edition focused on tolerance and has adapted the film program and accompanying programs accordingly. Since speaking out about tolerance is a necessity in today’s society, the Festival expanded its theme precisely to tolerance, maintaining it as a fundamental and definitive guideline for all program segments. This has turned our Festival into the only regional monument to tolerance in the cultural and educational sense.
Guests of the Festival of Tolerance were renowned filmmakers who accepted the invitation to present their films to our audience in person and whose feedback and correspondence after the Festival confirm the high quality of the organization and friendly atmosphere.
As a part of the film program, the Festival from its 7th edition presents the Audience Award – a plaquette entitled „Equality / Jednakost”.
Film program consists of accomplishments of high artistic value which bear awards from numerous world festivals, while considerable number of them have an European, or even world premiere precisely at the Festival of Tolerance. Added value of the Festival are renowned guests who present their work to the domestic audience and film professionals. Films from the program are carefully selected with the goal of conveying the message about human rights and freedoms, tolerance and acceptance of diversities, as they, besides with their artistic value, excel with the message they send to the audience, leaving the viewers with the need for a deeper contemplation about the topics they cover.
The film program is announced one week before the Festival.
