The 14^th Zagreb Film Festival, starting today, on Saturday, 12 November, in the following nine days, closing on 20 November, takes place at six locations, at Europa and Tuškanac cinemas, Museum of Contemporary Art, Docucinema KIC, F22 – New Academic Scene and Goethe Institute. In terms of theme and genre, it is the most diverse festival edition thus far, with comedies, dramas and the largest ever number of thrillers in competition.

ZFF will screen Nocturnal Animals, the new film by Tom Ford, a fashion designer turned ever more successful filmmaker, the Venice jury prize winner; a western/thriller combo Dogs, the debut title by Romanian director Bogdan Mirica arriving to ZFF with a Cannes FIPRESCI Award in Un Certain Regard; as well as Flemish Heaven, a magnificent suspense film directed by Peter Monsaert; and Old Stone, a thriller by Chinese-Canadian director Johnny Ma.

As many as four features were directed by women, which is another record in our competition. Next to Hana Jušić (Quit Staring at My Plate) and Katarina Zrinka Matijević (Trampoline), there are the Israeli author Maysaloun Hamoud, a guest at the 14^th ZFF presenting in Zagreb her charming Israeli-French film In Between, and the Georgian author Rusudan Glurijdze with her autobiographic drama House of Others.

The main competition this year includes a record-breaking number of Croatian titles – of 13 films competing for the Golden Pram, four of them are Croatian productions. Aside from Quit Staring at My Plate, Trampoline, House of Others, there is the directorial debut of the famous actor Rade Šerbedžija, co-directed by his son Danilo Šerbedžija – Liberation of Skopje, this year’s Macedonian Oscar candidate for the best foreign language film category.

A special novelty of this year’s competition is that for the first time ZFF will organise screenings suitable for the blind and visually impaired persons and deaf and hard of hearing persons. Inclusive screenings of Name: Dobrica, Last Name: Unknown and Trampoline are organised in association with Udruga Zamisli and with the support of HBOR.

See you at the record-breakingly good 14^th ZFF!