The youngest program of the Mediterranean Film Festival for the youngest film enthusiasts MFF Fora this year offers the films “Richard the Stork” and “The Mystery of Green Hill”.

“Richard the Stork” is film directed by Toby Genkel and Reza Memari, which is about young sparrow Richard raised by storks that starts the search for his true identity.

“The Mystery of Green Hill” is another story about a children’s hero Koko. This time Ivan Kušan’s characters face with mysterious burglaries at the summer holidays so Koko and his friends will take up the role of detectives.

Besides the screenings for the youngest audience, MFF School Workshops are also underway, which should produce two short films by the opening of MFF.  

Thirteen interesting screenplays were submitted to tenders and after the presentation two were selected, with working titles Quest and The Grey Area. The screenplays are now in the development and preproduction stage. The film set is moving to the location of the Nature Park Blidinje on August 17, where the shooting will be finished and followed by editing and postproduction in Široki Brijeg. The film crew is composed of about 50 high school students from the USA (12) and Herzegovina, some of which are attending the workshop for the first time but have successfully finished the beginners’ course. 

Six mentors that come from the American youth camp Outside the Lens (San Diego), film production Rough Cut Production (Philadelphia) and YouTube (Los Angeles) will give young people knowledge about film at MFF School Workshops. The leader of the workshops is American film director Lucy Eagleson, and note that most of the mentors graduated from the prestigious college at the University of Southern California.   

The films produced at our workshops won the main awards at international festivals for children and youth in Karlovac (Four River Film Festival - Grand Prix and Audience Award) and in Dubrovnik at the Mediterranean Film Festival for Children and Youth (DUFF – the first prize for the best short feature film). The films produced at the workshops are screened at a great number of festivals for children and youth. The workshops are organised with the support of the United States Embassy to B&H, which also supports the Festival.

The films produced at this year’s workshops will have premiers at the opening of the 18th Mediterranean Film Festival, that will take place from 23 to 26 August in Široki Brijeg.