Croatia's Postira Seaside Film Festival features international competition

The 16th edition of the Postira Seaside Film Festival, taking place from 21 to 26 July, features an international competition with 15 short films competing for the audience award, the Golden Sardine, alongside screenings of Croatian short films and the Midnight Shorts programme in Prja Bay.

French comedy "Please Hold", directed by Solal Bouloudnine, won both the Audience Award and the Canal+ Award at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, CE Report quotes HINA.

The film tells the humorous story of a furniture assembly specialist who, due to an administrative mistake, ends up spending far longer than the planned hour in the apartment of a young married couple awaiting the birth of their first child.

"Jazz Infernal", directed by Canadian filmmaker Will Niava, winner of the Best Short Film Award at the Sundance Film Festival, follows Koffi, a young trumpeter from Côte d'Ivoire, as he arrives in Montreal in search of the aunt he has come to visit.

Finnish comedy "Pantyhose", directed by Fabian Munsterhjelm, follows a married couple whose attempt to attend an important gala event spirals into an increasingly absurd marital argument. The film has been shortlisted for the 2026 Academy Awards in the Live Action Short Film category.

The Filipino film "Agapito", directed by Arvin Belarmin and Kyle Danelle Romero, follows bowling alley manager Mira, who closes the venue early once a month so she and her colleagues can brighten the day of her brother, who uses a wheelchair.

The film has screened at numerous international festivals, including Cannes, the Toronto International Film Festival, Flickerfest, and Clermont-Ferrand.

In cooperation with Norway's Kortfestivalen Grimstad, festival audiences will also have the opportunity to see "EGO" by director Vergard Dahle. What begins as a pleasant gathering between two friendly couples turns into a series of awkward situations after one couple announces they are expecting a child, triggering a completely unexpected reaction from the other.

The Postira Seaside Film Festival continues to showcase emerging Croatian filmmakers in cooperation with the University of Split Academy of Arts (UMAS). This year's programme includes "MALEN" by Luna Jovana Stamenković, "5 STAGES" by Mikula Nižetić and Duje Vlastelić, and "PROMAJA" by Jadran Parunov.

Zadar-based director Luka Galešić will present his film "Traje veliko finale", starring Stipe Radoja and Franko Jakovčević. The programme also features "Diorama" by Vida Škerk, a film that has enjoyed a successful run at international film festivals.

The Midnight Shorts programme, held in Prja Bay, is dedicated to what organisers describe as more unconventional, daring and genre-bending films. It includes the Spanish film "Talk Me" by Joecar Hanna, a surreal fantasy imagining a world in which words and intimate relationships have exchanged roles. The film has been screened at Cannes, Toronto, and Flickerfest.

The partner East European Film Festival in Cottbus presents this year's recipient of its Special Award, the Romanian comedy "Love Is in the Air" by Claudiu Mitcu. Also featured is the musical short "Dry Land" ("Suha zemlja") by Petra Crnjac, produced at UMAS.

The Filipino short film "Sammy; Who Can Detach His Body Parts", directed by Rein Mayhaelson, one of the most original short films of the past festival season, arrives in Postira after screenings at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) and the Interfilm Berlin International Short Film Festival.

The festival will close with the four-minute Austrian short "Son of God" by Jakob Vyzina, which organisers say promises a powerful and memorable finale.

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