Cinehill Film Festival (28)

Festival start: 21 July 2026      Festival end: 26 July 2026

Cinehill Motovun Film Festival is one of the most popular and prominent film events in Croatia and one of the best-known festivals in Southeast Europe dedicated to international arthouse films. The Festival aims to reflect diversity – both visually and geographically – and to promote social values and tackle contemporary issues. Over the past two decades, it has also served as a window to European independent cinema from the Croatian context.

After twenty-five years, the Festival decided to refresh and reinvent parts of the concept. Actually, the concept remains the same – but the landscape expands. The beautiful hills of the Gorski Kotar region became the new home of the Cinehill Motovun Film Festival. Thus, the Festival slogan, the hill of films, expands to a new magical hill.

The program that will take place in the “pearl of untouched nature” – the forests of Gorski Kotar – will promote an eco-friendly festival experience. Visitors will be encouraged to think and live with responsibility towards nature, and the Festival will find more space for films and projects that promote “ecological thinking” and sustainable living.

Cinehill MFF is known for its informal and relaxed atmosphere without red carpets that supports direct contact between filmmakers and the audience. It presents short films of up to 20 minutes, with more than 100 features and short films screened during the Festival and in 30 open-air screenings in Gorski kotar, Dubrovnik, Rijeka, Zadar, Petrinja, and Zagreb.

To promote regional films, the Festival is waiving fees for films from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Albania, and Montenegro. For the regional waiver fee code, please contact office@cinehill.eu.

For more information, you can reach Cinehill Shorts programmer Hamed Soleimanzadeh directly via e-mail: hamed.s@cinehill.eu

As of 2026, our VR programme is competitive and open to submission through Festhome. The films must be compatible with Meta Quest VR systems.

For more information on the VR film submissions, write to office@cinehill.eu.

Cash Prizes: 2,000$

Best film of the Cinehill Shorts programme wins The Propeller of Cinehill for Best Short Film as well as the €2000 award.

The best VR film based on audience votes receives a Special Mention at the closing ceremony, as well as the opportunity to have an additional post-festival promotion.

1) Submission is open for all genres of fiction, documentary, animation and experimental film.

2) Films must be up to 20 minutes in length. We do not accept medium and feature-length films. VR films must be up to 15 minutes in length.

3) Submitted film must have been produced on or after 1 January, 2025.

4) Croatian premiere is required.