A warm and witty story about two sisters and an old stone house marked the third evening of the Ponta Lopud Film Festival. In the garden of the Grand Hotel, audiences watched Koke (Honey Bunny, 2026), the debut feature by director Igor Jelinović, whose island setting and themes resonated particularly strongly with local audiences. Lopud was among the very first places where the film was ever screened. Inspired by a true family story, Koke follows, with both humour and emotion, two sisters caught in a dispute over the inheritance of an old family home, transforming what initially appears to be an ordinary quarrel over property deeds and stone walls into an intimate story about belonging, memory and the invisible ties that hold families together. The film, which enters regular theatrical distribution in July, was personally introduced to the audience by director Igor Jelinović and lead actress Snježana Sinovčić-Šiškov. They greeted the audience, thanked them for attending and wished them an enjoyable evening of cinema. Encounters such as these continue to affirm the unique character of the Ponta Lopud Film Festival as a place that brings filmmakers and audiences together in an intimate and immediate setting.

The daytime programme focused on rehearsals and blocking sessions for the two projects currently in development, guided by mentors Reinaldo Marcus Green and Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović and moderated by Nebojša Slijepčević. Before the evening screening, audiences also attended the discussion Effort Collapse: Art, Identity and Meaning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, conceived by artist Leonⁿ MonoSerieⁿ and moderated by Rina Grossel Bogdanović. The conversation tackled one of the most pressing questions facing contemporary artistic practice: what happens to the value of human effort and authorship in an age in which machines are becoming increasingly convincing in their imitation of the creative act? The discussion also opened broader questions concerning identity, originality and the purpose of artistic work, while particular attention was drawn by an unusual guest of the programme – a painting robot – which demonstrated live to the audience just how far artificial intelligence has advanced into a domain once considered exclusively human.

The sixth edition of the festival reaches its musical climax this evening with a major open-air concert dedicated to Ennio Morricone, the composer whose life and work formed the backbone of this year's programme devoted to film music. Morricone, whose scores from films such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in America and Cinema Paradiso became inseparable from the images they accompany, shaped the language of cinema in countless subtle ways. In tribute to his extraordinary legacy, this year's festival has dedicated both film screenings and its closing concert to his work, after which celebrations will continue at the festival's closing party.

Throughout the festival, audiences can also take advantage of a boat transfer aboard the Argosy from Dubrovnik. Departure from Lapad, in front of the Faculty of Economics, is scheduled for 7:00 PM, while return departures from Lopud (in front of Hotel Lafodia) are scheduled for 11:30 PM and 1:30 AM. Further information about the programme and accompanying events is available at pontalopud.hr and on the social media channels of the Ponta Lopud Creative Platform. Tickets are available through the Entrio ticketing platform.

The Ponta Lopud Creative Platform presents three cultural programmes throughout the summer of 2026 and warmly welcomes everyone passionate about the arts, especially film, music and literature. The Ponta Lopud Film Festival, the first of the three events, takes place from June 25 to 28 and is dedicated to the art of cinema. It will be followed by the popular Ponta Lopud Jazz Festival from August 27 to 29, bringing music lovers to the island, while Ponta Lopud Book Bridge, held from September 17 to 19, will transform Lopud into a literary haven and bring the season's cultural programme to a close.