July 09, 2018
If you enjoy the thrills and blood spills of horror movies then the event of the season is about to begin in Ljutomer, where the 14th edition of the Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival will be running from Tuesday July 10 until Saturday, June 14. The festival – named after Dr. Karol Grossmann, who in 1905 made the first Slovenian movie in the town of Ljutomer – focuses on low-budget, genre movies that take risks and break taboos.
The programme includes both new movies and classics, with the latter this year including four works that were first released 50 years ago and still maintain their power to shock and entertain, The Night of the Living Dead, Planet of the Apes, Once Upon a Time in the West, and Rosemary’s Baby, all well worth seeing on the big screen.
The main competition, called the Vicious Cat, features six new genre movies: Hagazussa – A Heathen's Curse, Party Hard Die Young, Errementari, Trauma, Charismata and Vidar the Vampire. There will also be programmes of animated works, music documentaries, “shock docs”, short films, a Melies d'argent selection, genre films suitable for children, a “torture garden” movie marathon (nine hours of horror), genre movies from the Balkans, and a presentation by the animator Lee Hardcastle.
But it’s not just movies and blood on the screen, as the Grossmann Festival also has a wine programme and competition, with details here, as well as other related events, including an exhibition, some fashion, theatre, a subculture fair and more (see here), with one highlight being the zombie walk in the main square on Saturday, which includes make-up and masking from 12:00 on, with the monsters on the move at 19:00.
In short, if you enjoy the strange and fantastic, the bloody and weird, the cult and subculture, then take a look at the Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival – it could be exactly what you need.
Tickets are 4 euros for films in the Vicious Cat competition, and 3 euros for those screened out of competition. The festival has an excellent English language website, and the daily schedules can be seen here. The screenings will be held in various locations, all within walking distance from each other: in the Main Square (Glavni trg) and Old Square (Stari trg), and in the City Hall and a place called The Cellar, both of which are also in the Main Square (The Cellar is also where to find the after-parties). The only location outside the centre is the Culture House Cinema, on Maistrova ulica.
