In an Istria increasingly shaped by mass tourism and market-driven logic that erodes its diversity and unique beauty, a small and courageous film festival stands out, boldly swimming against the mainstream like a defiant salmon. It offers an original and powerful selection of films that points finger and isn’t afraid to look the audience in the eyes to raise important questions about war, human and gender rights, religion, and family.

This year, I had the pleasure of being one of the three jurors tasked with awarding the best documentaries selected for the event.

Between a few films that have already made waves at various international festivals (Soundtrack for a Coup d’État, Les Filles d’Olfa, Black Box Diaries, No Other Land, A New Kind Of Wilderness) and lesser-known yet remarkable gems (Silence of Reason, Kek Pelikan, Jump Out, Kix), the program consistently offers intense and thought-provoking experiences.

In a Poreč that sleeps through the winter, waiting for the next tourist invasion, a friendly and spontaneous audience is always open to the discussions that inevitably arise after each screening. These discussions take place wherever they happen to land, around the Pučko otvoreno učilište Poreč, the cinema hosting the festival, like a subtle aura vibrating around the stories inhabiting the screening room.

PorečDox deserves credit for existing despite structural limitations and the challenges of the winter lull. It’s a local festival, created by locals with open minds, for an international audience that loves films in all their diverse forms and languages.

It’s a festival that gives space to young people, with screenings for schools and contests for budding young filmmakers. It hails design with remarkable young Croatian film-inspired artists. It celebrates with music through the Mary May Band final concert.

It’s a precious film and social programme, with its limitations and virtues, always honest and with a depth from which many more prominent festivals could take inspiration—festivals that are increasingly timid and hostage to the logic of numbers, pandering to audiences dulled by entertainment and “crowd-pleasers” shaped by the most familiar VOD algorithms.

PorečDox is a small yet grand manifesto of love for authentic stories—a window that, for one week, offers profound social and historical insights. It’s a small house of wonders inhabited by the few (but the good few) who keep it warm and nurture it with their passion for cinema and those who choose to visit.

Audience Award: Les Filles d’Olfa

Jury Award: No Other Land

Special Mention: Kix

Thanks for the hospitality, the good work, and the great vibes to Karla, Suzi, Jelena, Nika, Maša, Sonja, and brat Davor.