Motovun - Film Festival

For five consecutive days during the summer months, the 500 inhabitant-large town of Motovun in Istria is host to a film festival.  This tradition has been maintained since 1999 and has become internationally known as the Motovun Film Festival. The special features of this small festival include film screenings in the open air and around the clock busy streets in the city. The first year of the festival was particularly special when on the second day of the festival, visitors were fascinated by a solar eclipse. This fascination for the festival continues today attracting around 35,000 visitors to this small town in Istria.

The Motovun Film Festival was first initiated by Rajko Grlic, a well known Croatian film director who has won awards including the "Golden Arena" award at the film festival in Pula. Since Motovun opened up its open-air cinema, more than 200 films have already been shown in the past 15 years. In 2014, 20 national and international films were shown from 10 in the morning until 1:30 at night. Among them were smaller niche films and major film productions, such as Oscar contender "Boyhood". Around 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM there are special screenings for children, adolescents and (childish) adults as part of the Buzz@Teen, a cinema program with selected productions for families and children.

The highlight of the Motovun Film Festival is the award ceremony, inter alia, the presentation of the "Propeller of Motovun" and the "Motovun Online" (Short Film) awards. The film "From A to A" (From Albania to Austria) won the best film award from the region. However, a special award given is the "FIPRESCI", which is an award presented by the International Federation of Film Critics. The FIPRESCI Prize is given at both festivals in Croatia (besides Motovun also Split) as well as in the form of the "Grand Prix de la FIPRESCI" for the film of the year.

Tickets can be bought exclusively at official outlets during the film festival. Cinema tickets can only be purchased at a maximum of 60 minutes before the film screening starts. The sales outlets do not accept reservations. Tickets or ticket packages can only be purchased online up until the first day of the film festival. A package for all film screenings, including a festival catalog, costs around 40 euros (prices are due to change). The Motovun Film Festival will be held from July 28 to August 1 in the year 2015.