JOEL COEN HAS ARRIVED ON LOPUD
Multiple Oscar winner Joel Coen arrived in the company of Oscar winner and producer Peter Spears and renowned film agent Brian Swardstrom on the island of Lopud, becoming a creative cultural hub for film professionals.
American director, screenwriter, and producer Joel Coen has won four prestigious Academy Awards and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Festival. For the last four decades, he has created, together with his brother Ethan, some truly unforgettable films, many of which, such as No Country for Old Men, Fargo, Barton Fink, and The Big Lebowski, have been classified as anthology pieces.
Peter Spears is an Oscar-winning producer of Nomadland, for which Chloé Zhao was also awarded an Oscar for Directing and Frances McDormand for Best Actress in a Leading Role. In addition to these awards, the film also won Golden Globe, Golden Lion in Venice, Critics Choice Award, BAFTA, PGA, and Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture.
Brian Swardstrom is one of the partners in the United Talent Agency, where he represents actors working in film, television, and theatre. He also represents many Oscar, Emmy, and Tony award winners.
All three film artists, who are among the top in the world of cinema, will share their professional and personal experiences with participants of their masterclasses, who will have the opportunity to learn from the best in the island’s unique atmosphere of Lopud.
Multiple Oscar winner, actress, and producer Frances McDormand, one of this year’s leading masters for acting masterclass, will also be joining the Festival in the coming days.
THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND PONTA LOPUD FESTIVAL!
Ponta Lopud Festival starts with a film screening of Fargo, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, on La Baja beach at the RMH Lopud Lafodia, Wellness & Resort.
The film received the Best Director Award at Cannes Film Festival in 1996 and two Academy Awards, Best Screenplay (Joel and Ethan Coen) and Best Actress in a Leading Role (Frances McDormand), as well as nominations for Best Motion Picture and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (William H. Macy).
Joel Coen and starring Frances McDormand will attend the screening and greet the audience. The opening night will close with a cocktail party, and guests can enjoy the view of Lopud bay bathed in glittering fireworks.
During the six days of the Festival, participants and audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy film screenings in unique locations, such as the exceptional ambiance of the fortress of the Franciscan Monastery – Lopud 1483, and the beach of RMH Lopud Lafodia Resort & Wellness.
Nomadland
The next film will be Nomadland, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2020 and won its director Chloe Zhao the Golden Lion for the Best Film. The success of Nomadland was later crowned with three Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Frances McDormand), Best Director (Chloe Zhao) as well as Best Motion Picture (Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Chloe Zhao).
The audiences will also have the opportunity to attend screenings of two more films from the rich opus of the Coen Brothers – A Serious Man and Burn After Reading.
A Serious Man tells a story from the perspective of the place where the Coen brothers grew up. Extremely suggestive and thoughtful directing, focus on odd characters, bizarre settings, absurd situations, extraordinary realistic dialogues, great performances, and witty exploration of fatalism and attitudes towards religion and God, are all the characteristics of this black humorous existential drama, which was nominated for the 2010 Academy Award for Best Motion Picture and Best Original Screenplay, the Golden Globe for Best Film and the BAFTA for Best Screenplay.
Burn After Reading is a film about the absurdity of human relationships, with some of the greatest Hollywood names as protagonists, such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand.
The program also includes Compartment No. 6, a feature film by Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen and this year’s lecturer at acting and directing workshops. It premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2021, where it was awarded Grand Prix from the jury, securing its subsequent success at Festivals. Based on Rosa Liksom’s novel, it follows a young Finnish woman Laura (Seidi Haarla), who escapes an enigmatic love affair with her literature professor in Moscow by boarding a train to the Arctic port of Murmansk.
Navalny
Navalny, a documentary film by Daniel Roher, which premiered in 2022 at Sundance Film Festival, will be shown at an exclusive screening at the Ponta Lopud Festival in the fortress of the Franciscan Monastery – Lopud 1483. The film tells a story about the events surrounding the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the subsequent investigation into it.
For the closing evening, Ponta Lopud Festival announces a music and film spectacle, a screening of Birdman in the unique ambiance of the Franciscan Monastery – Lopud 1483, accompanied by a four-time Grammy winner Antonio Sanchez, who will play the drum score live in front of the audience. Birdman premiered at Venice Film Festival in 2014 and won four Oscars – for Best Motion Picture (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole), Best Achievement in Directing (Alejandro G. Iñárritu), Best Screenplay (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo) and Best Achievement in Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki). Antonio Sanchez won the 2016 Grammy Award for his Birdman score.
Due to the huge interest of the audience, a waiting list has been opened for the screening of the music and film spectacle Birdman, which will be accompanied by four-time Grammy Award winner Antonio Sanchez, who will play the drum score live.
Tickets for film screenings and boat transfers are available through the online system Entrio: www.entrio.hr or directly by following the link HERE.
Tickets for the remaining film screenings under the stars at unique locations such as the exceptional ambiance of the fortress of the Franciscan Monastery – Lopud 1483 and the La Baja beach of RMH Lafodia Sea Resort, as well as tickets for boat transfers can be purchased HERE.
The festival organizers made sure that visitors could enjoy the specialties of the local cuisine in addition to the rich film program.
The Ponta Lopud Gourmet program, in cooperation with Gault&Millau Croatia, offers delicate dishes of the exquisite Mediterranean cuisine prepared in Lopud restaurants by top Croatian chefs Vesna Miletić, Damir Šarić, Deni Srdoč, Vesko Šapić, Branimir Tomašić, and Ivo Frka.
All information about the Ponta Lopud Festival program and accompanying events is available on the Festival’s official website: www.pontalopud.hr and on the Ponta Lopud Festival’s social media.
