More than 130 films from all over the world are featured in the rich program of the 19th Zagreb Film Festival, taking place from November 14 to 21 in SC Cinema, Tuškanac Cinema, Theatre &TD, Urania, and HUB 385, as well as online at kinoeuropa.hr, croatian.film and ondemand.kinomeetingpoint.ba.

The festival opens Sunday, November 14, with the Kosovar film Hive, three-time winner of this year’s Sundance Festival, directed by Blerta Basholli. It is a powerful feel good drama inspired by a true story about Fahrije Hoti, an entrepreneur and war widow from Kosovo who, by starting ajvar production, started a small female revolution in the patriarchal village community. Tickets for the Sunday screening are on sale, but their number is limited.

A story about another, equally popular regional treat will close the competition part of the program Saturday, November 20. The out-of-competition film Not So Friendly Neighbourhood Affair, the new film by Oscar-winning director Danis Tanović with Branko Đurić, Izudin Bajrović, Anja Matković, and Goran Navojec, which we will watch with the film crew at the closing of the festival, is inspired by one of the most controversial gastronomical questions: where are the best ćevapi in Sarajevo?

The backbone of Zagreb Film Festival, as usual, is the main competition program of feature and short film, which showcases the best newer productions of debut and other films from all over the world, and the competition program of Croatian short film Checkers, the platform which saw the short works of the most important names of Croatian film. Among them is Sonja Tarokić, whose acclaimed film The Staffroom will have its Croatian premiere in ZFF’s feature film competition program, with the film crew present.

This year’s main festival program includes a record number of award-winning films and works awarded at A-list festivals, and as many as five representatives of national cinematographies competing for the Oscar for foreign film. The string of seven finalists for the European Film Academy Awards in ZFF’s programs is led by the French fantasy immersed in neon, sex, and violence, Titane, nominated in four categories — for Best European Film, Director (Julia Ducournau), Actress (Agathe Rousselle) and Actor (Vincent Lindon), Compartment No. 6, a melancholic and moving road movie by Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen, nominated for Best European Film, Actress (Seidi Haarla) and Actor (Yuriy Borisov), and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn from the Together Again program, which is nominated for Best Director (Radu Jude) and Screenwriter (Radu Jude).

All those who would rather follow ZFF from the comfort of their armchair will be able to find something for themselves on the festival’s online platforms. kinoeuropa.hr will offer the international short film program, the Icebreakers program devoted to female authors who have opened up the Iron curtain, the side program Festivals under the Spotlight, the LUX Film Days , PLUS and part of KinoKino’s, festival for children, program. The platform  croatian.film will showcase Croatian short films from the competition program Checkers, and films from the side program Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region will be available at ondemand.kinomeetingpoint.ba.