21st Festival of Tolerance Zadar 2027

The 21st Festival of Tolerance takes place in Zadar, Croatia, from 7 to 10 October 2027, under the theme FREEDOM (SLOBODE). Its central proposition is Six Perspectives on Freedom: a curatorial framework in which cinema, music, visual arts and public conversation approach the same question through different artistic languages. Rather than illustrating a predetermined message, the programme invites audiences to consider where freedom begins, how it is experienced and what happens when it is denied.

The Festival's identity has an uncommon origin. Founded in Zagreb in 2007 as the Jewish Film Festival, it developed in close association with Branko Lustig, the two-time Academy Award-winning film producer and Holocaust survivor. His conviction that personal testimony must remain part of public memory continues to inform a festival where artistic work and historical experience meet without being reduced to one another.

Film remains its foundation. International features, documentaries and shorts are presented as works of cinema in their own right, while screenings create occasions for conversations with filmmakers and invited guests. The interdisciplinary programme extends that encounter beyond the screen. For the 2027 edition, Six Perspectives on Freedom provides a shared point of departure for artistic contributions across disciplines, developed with cultural partners in Zadar, including the Zadar Concert Office.

The Festival also has a sustained educational practice. Educational Mornings, introduced in 2009, bring films and moderated discussions to children and young people, connecting historical testimony with questions of prejudice, discrimination and individual responsibility. Since 2015, Tolerance Talks has opened these questions to the wider public through exchanges among artists, filmmakers, historians, researchers and other participants.

Now based in Zadar for its principal annual edition, the Festival brings its history into conversation with the city's cultural life and contemporary artistic production. Admission is free, making screenings, performances and discussions accessible without a ticket price. Organised by the Zagreb Contemporary Jewish Film Festival Association, the Festival of Tolerance retains its original concern with memory while allowing each edition to ask new questions of the present.