Earlier this month, the Slovenian Film Centre (SFC) sent out its yearly press release to inform national and international media outlets about the institution’s achievements over the past year, as well as its plans for 2024. Other topics included box-office figures and the dates of the upcoming Festival of Slovenian Film.

Following its 2023 calls for applications, the SFC decided to support six fiction features with an amount of just under €3.2 million, which is a slight drop compared to the previous year in terms of both the number of projects supported and the financial means provided. Indeed, last year, seven films were supported with €3.745 million. Two of the movies that received support in 2023 were debut features: Maja Križnik’s Uncomfortable Beasts (produced by December) and Áron Horváth’s Lost Years (staged by Temporama). The other four titles are Confirmation (directed by Darko Sinko, produced by December), Hotel Alcohol (directed by Jan Cvitkovič, staged by Staragara), The Last Days of Mistral (directed by Igor Šterk, produced by Studio Virc) and Sara Kern’s Slovenian-Australian co-production A Way Away (staged by Zavod SPOK and Sweetshop & Green, in co-production with Tramal).

The SFC also backed two feature-length documentaries with €214,400 in total: Metod Pevec’s Freedom (produced by Vertigo) and The Dance of Life (directed by Siniša Gačić and staged by Zuhr Film). In the shorts department, four fiction and the same number of animated projects received €213,040 and €324,000, respectively.

Regarding box-office figures, total movie-theatre attendance rose to over 1.94 million tickets sold, which is an increase from 1.76 million, or about a 10% jump. However, domestic films attracted just 170,371 viewers attending with paid tickets, which is a significant drop from last year’s 307,776, and this is even more visible in terms of market share: this year’s 8.76% compared to last year’s 17.49%.

In terms of future plans, eight fiction features will enter principal photography in the year ahead. They are Luka Marčetić’s Girl of the Night (produced by Temporama – see the news), Boris Petkovič’s FC Freedom (staged by Iridium Film), Marko Naberšnik’s White Washes at Ninety (produced by Perfo), Boris Jurjaševič’s Elvis Škorc, Clever Klutz (staged by Fabula), Damjan Kozole’s 20 Meters (produced by Vertigo), and Martin Turk’s Washed and Buried (staged by Bela Film), as well as the aforementioned A Way Away by Sara Kern and Jan Cvitkovič’s Hotel Alcohol.

Thirteen domestic feature-length titles are expected to be released this year. The list includes Maja Prettner’s documentary Woman of God [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film], Maja Weiss’s historical documentary Snatched from the Source and Maja Doroteja Prelog’s doc Cent’anni, as well as the fiction flicks Wake Me [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Marko Šantić
scheda film] (directed by Marko Šantić), Observing [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Janez Burger
scheda film] (directed by Janez Burger), Block 5 (directed by Klemen Dvornik – see the news), Tartini’s Key (directed by Vinci Vogue Anžlovar – see the news), Family Therapy [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Sonja Prosenc
scheda film] (directed by Sonja Prosenc), The Lost Son (directed by Darko Štante – see the news), Little Trouble Girls (directed by Urška Djukić – see the news), Fantasy (directed by Kukla – see the news), This Is a Robbery! (directed by Gregor Andolšek – see the news) and Ester Ivakič’s Ida Who Sang So Badly Even the Dead Rose Up and Joined Her in Song (see the news).

Lastly, it has been decided that the Festival of Slovenian Film will take place in Portorož from 22-27 October this year.