Six Young Frooom! Filmmakers from Rijeka, Koprivnica, Split and Zagreb Join the International Youth Film Jury in Brussels!

Six young filmmakers from four Croatian cities are heading to Brussels with a special mission: to watch films, ask questions, defend their opinions, listen to different perspectives and, together with their peers from other countries, decide which film deserves a festival award.

For the sixth consecutive year, students of Frooom!, the interdisciplinary film school for children and young people run by Shadow Casters (Bacači sjenki), are taking part in the International Youth Jury of Filem’On – International Film Festival for Young Audiences in Brussels, one of Europe’s leading film festivals dedicated to young audiences. Their participation is part of the Shadow Casters programme “Frooom! on Tour” (Frooom! u gostima).

This year, Croatia and Shadow Casters are represented by:

• Rijeka: Laura Kunda Gustavsson and Lun Blečić
• Koprivnica: Mima Maričić
• Split: Luka Boban
• Zagreb: Helena Pavić and Lev Dejanović

The six young filmmakers will join fellow film enthusiasts from Belgium, Poland, Italy, France, North Macedonia and Georgia to take on the exciting yet demanding responsibility of serving on an international film jury.

Their participation in this international festival programme is made possible with the support of the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme and the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC).

Their First Film Assignment: Introducing Themselves – Through Film!

And the Frooom! filmmakers proved just how comfortable they are in the world of cinema even before arriving in Brussels!

Each young member of the international jury was asked to create a short video introducing themselves to their future fellow jurors before meeting in person. But our Frooom! students have already earned a reputation for treating such assignments as much more than simply sitting in front of a camera and saying a few words.

For them, it is another opportunity to play, experiment and demonstrate not only the knowledge and skills they have developed at Frooom!, but also their individual talents, imagination and cinematic personalities.

This year’s video introductions have therefore become a delightful little collection of different cinematic forms and genres: from traditional interviews to experimental films, from action-packed miniatures to playful and entertaining animations.

Six young filmmakers, six different approaches and six ways of answering a seemingly simple question: “Who am I?” – without necessarily having to put the answer into words.

After all, why should someone who knows how to tell stories through images, sounds, editing, movement and cinematic illusion settle for simply sitting in front of a camera and saying a few sentences about themselves?

With their video introductions alone, our young filmmakers have already shown that they are not coming to Brussels merely to watch films – they also have something to say through the language of cinema.

From the Film Frame to the Final Verdict

This year’s International Youth Jury will select the winner of the Filem’On Teen Screen Award, presented to the best feature film for teenage audiences. Six films are competing for the award, and the young jurors face a task that demands much more than simply answering the question: “Did I like the film?”

How does a film affect us? Why do some characters attract us while others leave us indifferent or even push us away? What do cinematic stories tell us about the world, society and ourselves? Can someone from another country, speaking another language and growing up in a different environment persuade us to see a film through entirely different eyes?

These are the kinds of questions at the heart of their festival experience. Alongside watching and evaluating films together, the young jurors will meet directors and other film professionals, take part in workshops, explore Brussels and prepare joint activities with their international colleagues.

The highlight of their participation will be the festival awards ceremony on 7 November at the Zinnema cultural centre in Brussels, where the International Youth Jury will announce the winner of the Teen Screen Award.

Twenty Years of Cinematic Flashes

This year’s Filem’On is a particularly special occasion: the festival celebrates its 20th edition, taking place from 25 October to 7 November 2026 in Brussels and Ghent.

Under the theme “Filem’On Flashes” – cinematic flashes that remain in our memory, the festival celebrates two decades of discovering cinematic worlds and introducing young audiences to stories capable of transforming their perspectives on reality.

The programme features more than 130 international films, ranging from contemporary fiction, documentary and animated works to classics of cinema. This year’s special focus is on Irish filmmaking, including the magical animated worlds of Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers, while the retrospective programme brings films from different periods of cinema history back to the big screen, from Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. to Cinema Paradiso and The Iron Giant.

Alongside screenings, the festival offers meetings with filmmakers, workshops, discussions, professional encounters, live cinema-and-music performances and numerous other activities in which children and young people are not merely spectators but active participants in film culture.

Frooom! – A Film School Where the Story Doesn’t End with the Closing Credits

For Shadow Casters and Frooom!, this visit is much more than a festival trip. It is a continuation of the educational and artistic process that Frooom! has been developing since 2012: a process in which children and young people learn not only how to make films, but also how to watch, understand, question and discuss them.

At Frooom!, a film is not merely the final product of a workshop. It is a means of exploration, expression, understanding others and developing one’s own critical awareness.

In Brussels, this process continues in a different setting. Our young filmmakers become viewers with a responsibility, critics who must explain and defend their judgements, and equal partners in dialogue with peers from different cultural backgrounds. They encounter diverse cinematic languages, experiences and perspectives on the world, while learning how collective decisions are reached through arguments, dialogue and mutual respect.

This is also the particular value of the “Frooom! on Tour” programme: film education crosses the boundaries of the classroom, the city and the country, becoming an experience of cultural exchange, cooperation and active European citizenship.

Because perhaps one of the most important things cinema can teach us is precisely the ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes without losing our own perspective.

Accompanying our young Frooom! filmmakers on their cinematic journey are Dora Borecki, drama and film educator, and Vjeran Vukašinović, filmmaker, educator and intermedia artist.

We wish them unforgettable cinematic encounters, lively jury debates, new friendships and those precious moments when a film, even if only for an instant, changes the way we see the world.

Brussels, the lights are going down, the film is about to begin – Frooom! is on tour once again!

More about the festival and its programme: https://filemon.be/en/

Programme and Organisational Support

The participation of Frooom! students in the Filem’On Festival 2026 is made possible with the support of the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme and the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC).

The Frooom! Interdisciplinary Film School for Children and Young People is supported by: the City of Zagreb, City of Rijeka, City of Split, City of Koprivnica, City of Velika Gorica, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Split-Dalmatia County, Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), Agency for Electronic Media (AEM), Association of Croatian Film Authors and Producers (DHFA), Split Promet and Split Parking.

The work of Shadow Casters is supported by: the City of Zagreb – City Office for Culture and Civil Society, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Science, Education and Youth of the Republic of Croatia, Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), National Foundation for Civil Society Development, Kultura Nova Foundation, the Erasmus+ programme and Creative Europe – MEDIA.