Topić pointed that, considering the current situation, the organizers have completely taken the responsibility and all the measures will be respected and put health in the first place. 

“We have taken the responsibility, we have a smaller number of guests, and the authors, not only from the Mediterranean but also the countries from the region, travel less. On the level of production the Festival will look as it was before the covid. The audience and the guests will enjoy the festival atmosphere, and we will respect the measures that put health in the first place”, the MFF director said. 

Robert Bubalo, producer of the festival, Lucy Eagleson, head of film workshops, and Katarina Pavković on behalf of HT Eronet, general sponsor of the Festival, spoke about the festival, the official part competition part of the program, films from the accompanying program, workshops and numerous festival contents. 

Robert Bubalo pointed that, in spite of the fact that the last year was pandemic, documentary film has flashed, and this is mostly visible in the program that is screening 45 films. 

“The pandemic has cut down everything, especially the film industry in terms of finances, but we have found a model that the festival will not feel a lack of budget. It has been replaced by one great effort and energy that was spent in the preparation of this festival. This is mostly visible in the program in which we show 45 films. Some may think this not a big number, but we are guided by the fact that none of these films would embarrass any of the serious festivals. Including competition and program out of competition. These are selected films for different types of audiences, both the more demanding one and the less demanding. Every film will be liked by someone”, he said. 

Bubalo pointed that Herzegovinian audience knows what documentary film is, and that this Festival has the credit for that through these 22 years of existence. 

“I recommend the films in the competition because this is our original program that you can see only at the Mediterranean Film Festival and nowhere else. From the 300 films submitted we selected 20 films, and these are the films with the highest artistic and aesthetic values and it is really worth seeing each of them”, he added. 

He also pointed that the organizers at this Festival has never insisted on stars, famous people, because documentary film is not a red carpet.  

“But this is a place with a lot more interesting people than the stars are.  In the past 22 years, our festival has been paraded by very interesting people, who fought wars, led revolutions, died on the roads with their brothers, changed the laws.These are adventurers, of different extremes and phenomenal people, and I would invite everybody to come because it pays out to come to our festival again this year and hang out with them” the festival producer said. 

The director of the Mediterranean Film Festival invited everyone to come to the screening of the documentary film ‘Closed, directed by Zdenko Jurilj and Tomislav Bubalo and produced by Kadar from Široki Brijeg.  

He also pointed out the importance and quality of the film workshop that takes place as part of the festival.The leader of MFF workshop Lucy Eagleson presented two short films that have been filmed over the past week by the participants of the workshop and that is going to be screened at the closing ceremony. 

“In the past two weeks we have worked on two films, a documentary and a feature film. The feature film brings a family comedy, characteristic to this region, whereas the documentary tells the story about a hairdresser from this region and his artistic path. There is a big team working on this film, there are 50 of us. One part of the team came from the USA and we have a huge support from the local students. We are working hard and looking forward to the premiere of the films at the closing”, media educator and leader of the MFF film workshop said. 

Katarina Pavković, on behalf of the Corporate Communications Department of HT Eronet, which also provided rich awards to festival visitors this year, pointed out that they are extremely proud of this cooperation that has lasted for years, and that HT Eronet is proud because they have become a  part of the story, which has long gone beyond BiH.

“Last year we supported the festival in its online format, but we are looking forward to reunions and the live festival. The thing we want to especially emphasise is that we have enabled for our users some of the best films from the previous years in the festival video library HT ERONET until August 29, which they can watch free. The digital performance of the HT ERONET at the Festival is presented through the online platform "Film Critic", which allows festival visitors to participate in the voting for the best film in the competition - MFF Audience Award.In this way, through three simple steps, completely transparent and simple, visitors give their assessment as film critics and automatically participate in the prize game for the device - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S 6 / 128GB '', Pavković said and congratulated the organizers of the new edition, already more than two decades long, cinematic Mediterranean stories.

The film that is opening the 22 MFF is the documentary ‘The Truffle Hunters’ directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw. In cooperation with Film Centre Sarajevo, the MFF will screen seven masterpieces of BH cinema, documentaries from the 'In Foucs' program, and films from ‘Home authors’ program and animated film within the MFF Fora program. The Festival also brings the cooperation with the movie network HBO, the feature film ‘Once We Were Good for You’ and a documentary story about the legendary Index. 

After the closing ceremony and the screening of the films created at the MFF School, the 22 edition of the Festival is going to be closed with a documentary ‘Love Around the World’. To remind you, the Mediterranean film Festival takes place from August 25 to 28 in Široki Brijeg. There are ten feature length documentaries that compete for the Grand Prix and ten short documentaries that compete for the MFF Best Short award. The audience also chooses the best film for the MFF Audience award.