Join us for a conversation with filmmakers Jan Cvitkovič and More Raça! Following the screening of some of their short films, the two filmmakers will discuss their work, the changing landscape of European cinema, unique challenges faced by filmmakers from smaller national cinemas, and their approaches to short film.
Jan Cvitkovic is the most acclaimed Slovenian director, screenwriter, and actor, known for his distinctive storytelling approach and ability to capture the complexity of the human experience on screen. As a filmmaker, he has made numerous award-winning films that have received over 60 awards at film festivals worldwide, including the Lion of the Future Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2001 and the Best New Director Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2005. His debut film as a director was Kruh in mleko (Bread and Milk), which was a Foreign Language Oscar candidate in 2001 and received several awards. His second feature film, Odgrobadogroba (Gravehopping), was a Foreign Language Oscar candidate in 2005 and won more than 20 awards at film festivals worldwide. Another one of his feature films, Archeo (2011), won the Vesna Award for Best Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Cinematography at the Festival of Slovenian Film. One of his most recent works, the short film A ti mene vidis? (Do You See Me?), released in 2022, won a Special Mention at the Festival Mundial de Cine de Veracruz, Mexico, and the IRIS Award for Best Picture. His last feature film Druzinica (The Basics of Killing), released in 2017, won 8 awards at different film festivals, including the Best Actress Award at the Montreal World Film Festival.
More Raça is an award-winning filmmaker born in Kosovo in 1992. More holds a BA and MA degree in Film Directing from the University of Prisna and is currently doing her Ph.D. in Bulgaria. Her debut feature film Andromeda Galaxy won the Glocal in Progress award at the San Sebastian Film Festival and premiered at the Main completion of the Sarajevo Film Festival 2020. More was part of Audi's Installation in Hollywood #driveprogress that celebrated the women who "drive progress" and change the film industry. She was selected at Berlinale Talents 2019 as a director and at the Zurich Film Festival Academy in 2020. In 2021 she received the Annual Award for Achievement in Kosovo Cinema. From January to June 2022, she researched Film Pedagogy at NYFA in Los Angeles as a Fulbright Faculty Development Program Award recipient.
The event, open and free to the public, is sponsored by Penn Cinema & Media Studies, Comparative Literature & Literary Theory, English, Russian & East European Studies, and Wolf Humanities Center.
Location: 401 Fisher-Bennett Hall | Penn Campus, 34th and Walnut
https://cinemastudies.sas.upenn.edu/events/2024/03/26/filmmakers-jan-cvitkovic-more-raca