Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival

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 Human Rights Film 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 Myths, Icons, Media section includes films on cultural icons, social and cultural phenomenons, music and film stars, trends in mass culture and arts. In the previous years films like We Jam Econo: The Story of The Minutemen by Tim Irwin, Requiem for Billy the Kid by Anne Feinsilber and Soul Power by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte were screened. The Intimate Portrayals section offers intimate encounters with well known personalities or ordinary people, while the Topical, Socially Critical sections brings films that are critically focusing on actual social issues. The last is the Retrospective section. Through it domestic and foreign directors or national productions are presented. In the past years this section brought personal retrospectives of Jože Pogačnik, Mako Sajko, Nicolas Philibert and Raymond Depardon, but also the overview on Bosnian documentary film production.

Some of the films screened at the festival are later on distributed by Cankarjev dom and released in various theatres, next to Kosovel Hall usually in Kinodvor Cinema).

External links

Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival

Sections and awards

See also

External links

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