The Neum Underwater Film Festival begins on Friday, August 18, at 7:30 p.m. at the “Zenit” hotel in Neum. On the first night of the Neum Underwater Film Festival, 22 films will be screened in the official competition, and admission to all screenings is free.
The audience of the Neum Underwater Film Festival can expect exceptional underwater attractions on the movie screen of the Zenit Hotel in Neum.
The third Neum Underwater Film Festival will announce the winners for the best film of the festival, the best BH underwater film, the best eco film, the best music and the best camera, the organizers announced. The sponsor of the event is the Municipality of Neum, and the Festival is organized by the “Standard” Association. Everyone who loves the sea, rivers, swimming pools, and at the same time enjoys underwater movies and music, is more than welcome.
The Neum Underwater Film Festival is an opportunity for the promotion of films and authors, as well as classic underwater film networking. The accompanying program of the Fest&val, which begins on Friday, August 18 at 5 p.m. in the open-air Fontana hall, Hotel Zenit, in Neum, during the first day of the Festival, where a program of student and amateur films will be shown, as well as some of the exceptional semi-finalists who were on the way to enter the official competition, and the Festival continues with screenings of the films of the 22 finalists.
The Neum Underwater Film Festival awards prizes in 5 categories (for the best film, for the best camera, for the best music, the best eco-film and the best BH underwater film) and the Audience Award. In addition to the main projection evening, this year, 18.08. Friday, the following day Saturday 19.08. at 12 o’clock, a film workshop is held led by Lorenzo Moscia from Rome, last year’s winner in the eco film category, and the topic is “How to tell an underwater story”.
“As of July 20, the Organizing Committee received over a thousand films, of which 450 were evaluated according to the criteria by the pre-selection jury, and 22 films from around the world will be shown and evaluated by the international jury and audience. The festival was made for Neum, for artists, for the audience, for nature. We don’t have a red, but a marine “Blue carpet”, where in the first row of the festival we see directors and those who will find inspiration for art in Neum” , said the founder and director of the Neum Underwater Film Festival, Ivo Mikulić.
Underwater attractions on the movie screen
The international jury of the Neum Underwater Film Festival consists of divers, journalists, directors, musicians, photographers, ecologists. The wide range of occupations and professions of the jury members ensures quality analysis and selection of films, deeper analyzes and realistic conclusions. For the past two years of the Festival, both the jury and the audience (without knowing it) have voted the same films as the best Grand Prix, Gareth Bartlett’s “Mike and Maurice” in 2021 England and Clayton Conn’s “Tiger Shark King” behind the USA in 2022 .
Jury members of the Neum Underwater Film Festival this year are:
Mike Frankel USA, photographer, official photographer of the 1969 Woodstock concert
Jurica Gašpar HR, editor-in-chief of Morski.hr, author of the book Legends of Light, based on which the movie was made…
Gareth Bartlett UK, 1st Neum Grand Prix winner, diver, director, vlogger
Ante Žono BiH, scuba diver from Neum, president of the diving club Neum
Nikša Kaleb HR, professional extreme diver, world and Olympic champion in handball
Lorenzo Moscia ITA, multimedia artist from Rome
Marisa Cecchetti ITA, undeewater dancer and choreographer
Clayton Conn USA, BBC journalist, underwater cameraman, director, winner of the Neum Underwater Grand Prix from 2022.
The screenings will be held in the open-air Fontana hall of the Zenit hotel, kala Kardo is the name of the central promenade located right in the middle of the Zenit hotel in Neum, which turns into the international Film Square that night.
Some of the underwater attractions that viewers can expect in movies this year are underwater dancing, exploring sunken ships, feeding sharks, eco-films that satirically denounce pollutants and other interesting things from the underwater world, connected to people.
There is no ticket, and all true lovers of film, the sea, and nature are welcome. With the festival, we want to change things for the better.
What is significant about the Neum Underwater Film Festival is that it animates young authors and artists related to the creation of environmental films, and year after year their number and quality increase. Dozens of exceptional ecological films, created by young people and artists from BiH, France, Mauritius, Latin and South America, India and Turkey will be shown to the audience this year as well.
The festival is a project that combines art, culture, economy and tourism, which proved to be exceptional for Neum and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Come to Neum, from the safety of the Zenit Hotel, get to know the underwater world with the Neum Underwater Film Festival and meet the authors of the world’s best underwater films. Enjoy the clear sea, beautiful evenings with rich content and a day of education with Lorenzo Moscia and Festival guests from abroad, gastronomic atmosphere and local kindness, as well as the performance of cellist Jelena Marković, the performance of Marija Previšić and Ad Libitum.
Be a part of the Neum Underwater Film Festival because the Festival gives pleasure and beauty.
– Read more on the official website www.uff.ba
Source: akta.ba
