Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival

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Festival dokumentarnega filma

Prešernova cesta 10, SI-1000 Ljubljana

http://www.fdf.si/

fdf@cd-cc.si

Phone386 (0) 1 241 7147

Organised byCankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre

Simon Popek, Festival Director

simon.popek@cd-cc.si

Phone386 (0) 1 241 7150, (0) 41 669 559

In 1994 the documentary section was introduced at the Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFe) and it immediately received a great response from the audience. It quickly became clear that the documentary film production has its audience, even a large one although the documentaries were rarely – if at all – screened in cinemas. Until 1996 when the documentary sections was included in the official programme of the Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFe) for the last time it became one of the most popular sections among audience. So it is not surprising that in the 1998 the International Documentary Film Festival was established. In the first few years it was a specialised non-competitive festival that was offering a general, quite unselective overview of the contemporary documentary film production, later it introduced also a competitive section for Mountain and Adventure Films (in 2007 it became a separate festival event) while in the last few years – actually from 2007 when Simon Popek became the director and the selector of the festival – it became a specialised competitive festival focusing on contemporary documentary film production, mostly on films that deals with social issues and social phenomenons. The festival is taking place annually at the Cankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre and in Kinodvor Cinema in the month of March and it lasts 8 days.

Sections and awards

The International Documentary Film Festival has five sections. The main Competitive section that was introduced in 2009, at the 11. International Documentary Film Festival, is dedicated to documentaries that are dealing with human rights issues and it is prepared in collaboration with Amnesty International Slovenia. Each year five or six films are competing for the main award, the Amnesty International Award for the Best Film on Human Rights Issues. The winning film is selected by the international jury composed of three members (selected by the Amnesty International Slovenia).

The different programme sections present the so-called problem films, socially critical works, films about myths and icons of the present and the past, intimate portraits, as well as retrospectives of prominent Slovene and foreign documentarists. In 2009 the festival has introduced a competitive section: films addressing human rights issues compete for the award presented by the festival partner, Amnesty International Slovenia. The three-member international jury was comprised by a representatives of Amnesty International Slovenia, Watch Docs from Warsaw and Slobodna Zona Festival from Belgrade).

Some of the films premiered at the festival are later on distributed by Cankarjev dom and released in various theatres, next to Kosovel Hall usually in Kinodvor Cinema). In 2009 the two distributed films were: the Man on Wire by James Marsh, which received the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Elle s'appelle Sabine, directed by French actress Sandrine Bonnaire.

See also

• Cankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre
• Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFe)
• Kinodvor Cinema

External links

• Documentary Film Festival in Ljubljana website