Tolerance is not only a moral duty… (a fragment from the UNESCO’s definition of tolerance)

The Festival of Tolerance – Jewish Film Festival is a unique film festival focused on Holocaust education through an extensive film programme comprising many screenings, thematic exhibitions, music programme, a host of discussions and workshops. The Festival aims to emphasize the necessity of raising awareness and accepting tolerance in our everyday lives in this day and age.

Besides recalling the Holocaust, the Festival warns about different social phenomena and current social problems: discrimination of minorities, xenophobia, homophobia, integration of asylum seekers and attitudes towards senior citizens.

This is the 9th edition of the Festival of Tolerance, which started in 2007 in Zagreb. The Festival is now present in six cities of the region (Belgrade, Cetinje, Ljubljana, Rijeka, Sarajevo, Vienna) in its somewhat abbreviated version. This year we have also accepted the invitation to present the festival in the German city of Mannheim.

So far, the Festival (led by the two-time Academy Award winner Branko Lustig) has been supported by many prominent people from the film industry, such as Steven Spielberg, Stefan Ruzowitzky, Liam Neeson, Stellan Skarsgard, Ralph Fiennes, Rade Šerbedžija, Volker Schlöndorff, together with this year’s guest – Istvan Szabo, yet another Academy Award winner.

Over the past eight years, more than 100 000 people visited our documentary and feature film screenings and we are proud to say that more than 15 000 young people participated in our educational mornings.
Year after year, the Festival presents a comprehensive film program with more than 80 films from around the globe, and all that for free!

In the framework of the film programme, in 2013 the Festival introduced the Audience Award, or a plaquette entitled Equality/Jednakost.

After some of the screenings, the audience also has a privilege of participating directly in discussions with renowned filmmakers ( Q&A sessions) which become a tradition, getting more popular each year.
This year we are introducing a new type of programme, i.e. open thematic discussions related to the film screenings, with the participation of experts from different fields. The intention is to encourage the audience to take part in creating the public opinion that will eventually lead to a more open and tolerant society.

All of this makes us rich (not only in films).

People. Ideas. Art. Tolerance.
Past events and history give everyone a chance.
If we cannot change the past – at least we can learn from it.
Will we take this opportunity?