79th Cannes Film Festival kick-off: Nobody Said Anything in short film competition; Croatian director Vida Skerk’s title in La Cinef selection – The 79th Cannes Film Festival opens on Tuesday, 12 May. Nobody Said Anything, of director and screenwriter Tamara Todorović and producer Čarna Vučinić, and a minority Croatian co-production (Dinaridi Film), to have its world premiere as part of the official short film competition programme. In addition, the fiction short by Croatian director and co-screenwriter Vida Skerk, Left Behind, Still Standing (National Film and Television School, UK), to screen in the La Cinef section.
The feature film Nobody Said Anything will premiere in Cannes on Friday, 22 May, as part of the Short Films In Competition programme.
In addition to co-producers Lucija Perić, Tena Gojić and Miljenka Čogelja, actress Iva Kraljević appears in the role of Jasmina, while the rest of the Croatian crew consists of sound engineer Jan Galić, assistant sound engineer Vanja Stanić and graphic designer David Gašo.
The film centres on Katarina, whose everyday life is interrupted by a call that forces her to face the consequences of a seemingly innocuous game played by her daughter.
The screenwriter and director of Nobody Said Anything is Tamara Todorović. It is produced by the Serbian company Naked, while the producer is Čarna Vučinić. The co-production partners are Croatian company Dinaridi Film, with co-producers Lucija Perić, Tena Gojić and Miljenka Čogelja, as well as French production company Bocalupo (Jasmina Sijerčić) and Slovenian Manjana (Katja Lenarčić).
The fiction short premiering in Cannes has been created with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, Film Centre Serbia, National Centre of French Film and the Moving Image (CNC), ARTE France, Slovenian Film Centre, Vibe, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, City of Kragujevac and MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe. It was developed as part of the European Short Pitch Forum.
Out of 3,184 films from across the globe submitted to the festival this year, only 10 titles have been selected for its short film competition. The Short Film Palme d’Or will be awarded on Saturday, 23 May, at the closing ceremony of the 79th Festival de Cannes, which runs from 12 to 23 May.
In addition, a film by Croatian director and co-writer Vida Skerk will also premiere at Cannes. The short drama Left Behind, Still Standing is screening in the official selection of La Cinef, a programme that annually selects the most prominent young filmmakers from around the world.
This is the second consecutive year that Vida Skerk’s film has been selected for La Cinef. In the history of the British National Film and Television School (NFTS), which produced the film, Vida Skerk is the first director to be selected twice.
The short stars Croatian-Venezuelan actress Lucia Luque Akrap, accompanied by Bailey Brook, Pippa Winslow, David Mildon and Lianne Harvey.
The film was created by an international film crew made up of NFTS’s final-year students. For Vida Skerk, producer Dora Galosi and sound designer Vicent Molder, this is a return to Cannes after their collaboration on Ether, the short shown in the 2025 La Cinef selection. It is also the second time Vida Skerk collaborates with a Croatian actress in the lead in a British production, since Laura Kaliger also starred in Ether.
Left Behind, Still Standing tackles themes of migration, work and belonging. Morana is an immigrant originally from Croatia who works on closing a steel mill in a small British town. When the factory miraculously comes to life one night, Morana faces the instability of her own existence, but also discovers how much she actually has in common with the workers who have been laid-off.
Vida Skerk is a screenwriter and director based between London and Zagreb. She recently earned her degree in film directing from the UK’s National Film and Television School (NFTS), where both of her films were made. Before studying at NFTS, she directed Night Ride (2022), created at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, where she completed her undergraduate studies. Night Ride screened at the BFI Flare and Premiers Plans D’Angers festivals, where it won the Student Jury Award. Night Ride also won the Oktavijan Award presented by the Croatian Film Critics’ Society.
The Cannes Film Festival runs from 12 to 23 May and will open with the inaugural screening of French director Pierre Salvadori’s latest, La Vénus Électrique (Electric Kiss).
