The festival, to last until 28 August, will feature more than 100 recent productions awarded at the festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Venice. Many of them will have their Croatian premiere at the festival, and the film by Rayna Andrea Russel "Lapse of Honour" will have its world premiere.
The festival will also feature films by young authors just entering the world of film.
The event will be taking place at four venues - Forum, St. Chrysogonus' Square, St. Dominic's Church and Petrcane, some 10 kilometres north of Zadar.
The festival includes two retrospective programmes, one dedicated to German producer Karl Baumgartner, the winner of the Berlinale Camera award who died last year, and the other to French cinematography, organised in cooperation with the Rendez-vous Festival of France in Croatia and the Croatian ministries of foreign affairs and culture.
Some of the members of the festival jury are the head of the Cannes Film Festival's film office, Christian Jeune, British director Rayna Andrea Russel, German producer Marcelo Buse, and British producer Isabelle Stead.
Guests include Oscar-winning film producer Branko Lustig, Bosnian actor Emir Hadzihafizbegovic, and Sofia International Film Festival director Stefan Kitanov.