Croatia Intl. Film Festival to Launch With Rooney Mara’s ‘La Cocina’

“La Cocina,” the Rooney Mara-starring drama that premiered at the 2024 Berlinale, is among four feature films that will screen at the inaugural Croatian International Film Festival beginning Aug. 8.

The four-day event, set in the coastal city of Sibenik, will also feature 18 documentary and narrative shorts, giving the struggling independent film market an additional international venue to screen movies and launch careers.

Created by Croatia-born, America-based Ella Mische, CIFF was conceived as a fest that will amplify women in media and second-time directors, and will serve as an event to connect nonfiction and narrative filmmakers from around the world. Mische, who was part of the casting department on the 2022 Adam Sandler film “Hustle,” has worked in the entertainment industry for the last two decades casting, directing, acting and producing.

“Being a citizen of both Croatia and America, this festival began as a passion project,” says Mische. “I wanted to connect and give back to my two worlds — the U.S. and Croatia — and bridge the gap even more between the two, in terms of the entertainment industry.”

Although she has spent the majority of her career working in the United States, Mische decided to launch CIFF during the writer and actors strikes in 2023.

“During that time I saw a lot of my friends become depressed,” says Mische. “With friends in New York and L.A., the topic of conversation was about how…