After Sunday’s online opening, the 18th Zagreb Film Festival enters its first official festival day. A rich festival program brings the biography of the legendary Czech writer and statesman Vaclav Havel, the visually enchanting Christmas postcard from Iceland by Rúnar Rúnarsson and the first block of Croatian short film program Checkers, and the international short film competition to the big and small screens of viewers all over Croatia.

Films are available to watch in a 24-hour period, i.e. from 6 pm Monday, November 9 to 6 pm Tuesday, November 10. All films are available on the platform kinoeuropa.hr, except films from the Checkers program, which are available on croatian.film.

Do not miss two award-winning European films from the main competition program. The biopic Havel about the renowned Czech writer, political dissident and national leader Václav Havel directed by Slávek Horák follows Havel’s gradual transformation from a care-free bohemian to a fierce human rights fighter over a span of 30 years. The main program also features the award-winning debut film by director Nermin Hamzagić from Bosnia and Herzegovina Full Moon. The film won the prize of the ecumenical jury at Cottbus and the award for best actor (Alban Ukaj), and is one of the nominated films for the European Film Academy Award for Best Debut Film.

Audience votes will determine the best film from the Together Again program, which features films of established directors whose work ZFF has followed from their beginnings. The first festival block offers the new film by Zagreb audience favourite, Rúnar Rúnarsson, Echo. In a poetic mosaic made up from 56 short tableaus filmed during Christmas and New Year holidays, Rúnarsson discovers Iceland in its complex fairytale fullness, composing an incisive, but gentle portrait of contemporary society.

The Together Again program also brings the screening of the absolute winner of Pula with 6 Golden Arenas, Tereza37 by scriptwriter and lead actress Lana Barić, directed by Danilo Šerbedžija. This warm, funny and at times devastating generational drama about a woman in her late 30s who starts questioning her routine marriage, which sparks a series of life-changing events while she tries to find her piece of happiness.

In the side program The Great 5, which provides an insight into the five most important European cinematographies, features the Spanish film Madre by the master of tense film stories Rodrigo Sorogoyen. Madre is the feature version of Sorogoyen’s Oscar-nominated short film of the same title, in which a mother receives a terrifying call from her six-year old son whose father abandoned him on a beach in France. Ten years after her son’s disappearance, Elena lives on that same beach and manages a restaurant and starts developing a relationship with the teenager Jean who strongly reminds her of her lost son.

The competition program of Croatian short films Checkers is opened by the film I’m Not Telling You Anything, Just Sayin’ directed by the actress, screenwriter and director Sanja Milardović, and the International short film competition by three films: I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face by director Sameh Ala, which won the Palme d’Or for best short film, the Columbian Between You and Milagros by Mariana Saffon, awarded as the best film of the Horizons program in Venice, and the film Leave of Absence by Russian director Anton Sazonov who won the best director award in Locarno.

KinoKino — International Film Festival for Children will have its special, 5th edition within the 18th ZFF, for the youngest audience, which features the German film Too Far Away by director Sarah Winkenstette. The film was shown and awarded at numerous festivals, from Czech Zlín to Chicago, and follows the developing friendship between two rivals in the school football team who share the fact they are both newcomers in town.

Monday is also reserved for ZFF’s educational platform Industry’s program with the Masterclass dealing with the topic of loneliness in video games which will be held by Cornelia Geppert, creative director of the German studio Jo-Mei, on the example of the game Sea of Solitude. The lecture will be streamed online on the festival’s official web-page zff.hr and on social media.

The free side program of films chosen by programmers of several European festivals, Festivals in the Spotlight, brings the film Bad Tales by the directorial duo, brothers D’Innocenzo from the Mediterranean Film Festival Split’s program, and the selection of short films from the Horizons program of the Venice Film Festival.