The 19th Kino Otok – Isola Cinema Festival Is About to Start! On the Programme: A Sea of Films

Tonight we open the 19th International Film Festival Kino Otok – Isola Cinema in Izola, which will turn the seaside town into a lively carousel of encounters with and at the cinema for the rest of the week! Visitors will be able to discover striking new films as well as classics, meet filmmakers, delve into the fascinating details of filmmaking, screening and reflecting on cinema with a programme for professionals, explore the varied cultural and artistic festival programme in galleries and concerts, and, last but not least, mingle in a wide and diverse, yet close circle of film lovers, art lovers and festival enthusiasts.

Opening film – the colourful dialect of Friuli will be heard on the screen

Tonight at 9pm, the Arrigoni Open-Air Cinema will open the festival with a witty and intimate portrait of a man closely connected to his environment. The Adventures of Gigi the Law (Alessandro Comodin, 2022), which follows the title character, a charismatic, dedicated policeman in a sleepy rural town in Friuli, and which twists elusively between documentary and fiction, between the real and the fantasy, won the Special Jury Prize at last year’s Locarno Film Festival.
The screening will be introduced by the film’s title character Pier Luigi Mecchia, with a video introduction by the director and screenwriter Alessandro Comodin.
The film will be screened once more on Friday 9 June at 4pm at the Art Cinema Odeon, when we will have a chance to discuss the film in detail with assistant director Giulio Squarci after the screening.
In case of rain, all screenings of this year’s Arrigoni Open-Air Cinema will be moved to the House of Culture.

Video on the Beach: Beyond Domestic Spaces

Video on the Beach will light up the screen under the starry sky at the Lighthouse every evening at 20:45. These are eclectic themed programmes, where you can watch an independent Slovenian film and an international hit of the year in the same block, giving viewers a deep insight into short film production.
On Wednesday, Video on the Beach will present a thematic programme titled Beyond Domestic Spaces, enriched by films focusing on the theme of the home. Free entry!
In case of rain, the screenings of Video on the Beach will take place at the Art Cinema Odeon, starting at 21.15.

A varied programme for professionals

Kino Otok brings to Izola a programme for professionals from different fields of filmmaking and for all others interested in the journey of a film from idea to screen and beyond. The venue for the programmes of PRO Otok is the Manzioli Palace.

On Thursday, PRO Otok will feature a workshop Practical steps for sustainable cultural events in collaboration with Motovila, Centre for the Promotion of Cooperation in the Cultural and Creative Sectors, and Umanotera, The Slovenian Foundation for Sustainable Development. On Friday, there will be an expert meeting of the Art Cinema Network of Slovenia (AKMS) on cinema programming, devoted to this often overlooked skill.

Festival visitors can attend Pro Otok events, which are open to the public and free of charge, and do not require prior registration:

On Friday at 3 pm, the panel discussion Cinema as a litmus test or catalyst of society? with international guests of the festival, which will address questions such as: What is the social role and power of auteur cinema in the European environment today? Can film be a litmus test for significant social change or even a catalyst for change? The event will be held in English.

On Saturday at 11:00 a.m. there will be a Masterclass by Debora Vrizzi: Cinematographic language through artistic research. Debora Vrizzi is a director of photography and video artist who shows her artworks in museums, galleries and festivals at home and abroad. The projects she has worked on as director of photography have been selected for the Cannes, Toronto, Venice and Berlin Film Festivals. Among the most recent films she has worked on is the feature film The Man Without Guilt directed by Ivan Gergolet (2022), which can also be seen in this year’s Kino Otok programme. The event will be held in English.

On Saturday at 15:00, there will be an open to the public part of the Short Scene workshop at Kino Otok, in the form of a presentation and discussion, where Viviana Carlet will talk about how knowledge of trends and current themes in European film production can be helpful when writing a script or developing a short film project. Viviana Carlet is the founder and director of the Lago Platform, which includes the Lago Film Fest, the Rodolfo Sonega Award, the Formentera Film Festival, the 30_____70 Doc Fest and the Lago Film Residency.