The Art Organization Asser Savus (General Information)

The Art Organization „Asser Savus“ is a non-profit, independent art organization founded in 1992 and registered by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia.The Organization is an initiator and organizer of a number of cultural projects among which they stand out Actor’s festival, Puppet spring festival, Actor’s film festival, Slavonian mobile cinema – SMOKI, and also, literary meetings and competitions – Tena and Tenica. Actor’s festival was launched in co-organization with the main association of Croatian actors – Croatian Association of Drama Artists from Zagreb, Puppet Spring in the cooperation with HC UNIMA and an Actor’s film festival in collaboration with the parent association of film workers – Filmmakers Association of Croatia from Zagreb.

During the 29 years of the Actor’s Festival, the Art Organization „Asser Savus“ has organized more than 650 professional theater performances, selected by professionals.The organization has launched more than 120 different workshops, seminars, exhibitions and publication presentations. Also, every year, festival hosts theatars from abroad; from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Poland etc.

During the 27 years of organizing the Puppet Spring festival, numerous puppet theaters have performed about 1,800 puppet shows in all cities and municipalities in eastern Croatia.
18 puppet theaters play an average of 100 plays a year.

The Actor’s film festival has been running for five years in a row and is dedicated to the actor on film. As a part of the festival, there are rich accompanying programs – EDUoptik, ANIMAoptik and DOKUoptik, as well as showing the latest production of documentaries dedicated to the war in Croatia and the region in the 1990 – Dan D (D Day).

During 2018, the The Art Organization „Asser Savus“ launched a project called SMOKI – Slavonian mobile cinema. We have complete equipment for showing cinema projections indoors and outdoors – freestanding cinema screen measuring 7.5m x 4m, high quality NEC HD projector, speakers, video and audio mixers.For the past four years, we have been showing films for children and adults in cultural centers, sports halls, and open spaces throughout eastern Croatia.

In 2020, “Asser Savus” made its first feature-length documentary, “War Hospital”, which was completed and had two premieres. This year, the film will be shown on national television – HRT.

Meetings of writers who are writing for the children and youth,”Tena and Tenica”, have been running for five years as an accompanying program of the Puppet Spring in cooperation with the Club of First Writers, monitored by the Croatian Society of Writers for Children and Youth.

THE ACTOR’S FESTIVAL was founded in 1994 as the first theater festival of the independent democratic Croatia, on the independent initiative of the Art Organization „Asser Savus“.

It is held every year in May, although due to pandemic circumstances, the 27th and 28th Actors’ Festivals were held in September. Over time, it became the largest theater festival in Croatia and the region. It is the only festival in Croatia that focuses on the actor. THE ACTOR’S FESTIVAL is a festival where laureates receive cash prizes in addition to statues.It is held in all five cities of the Vukovar-Srijem County – Županja, Vinkovci, Vukovar, Ilok and Otok, including the Osijek HNK.THE ACTOR’S FESTIVALwas founded in 1994 on the initiative of the Art Organization Asser Savus from Vinkovci, which is a permanent executive organizer of the festival, which has lasted for 29 years. Croatian Association of Drama Artists from Zagreb takes care of the high professional level of the program quality and top acting performances of the theater projects.

Puppet Spring festival is a puppet theater show that has been held since 1996 on a permanent spring term.We can freely say that the Art Organization Asser Savus, considering the number of performers and visitors to the Puppet Spring, has launched the largest puppet festival in the region. The festival is running in 5 towns and 20 municipalities of the eastern Slavonia. Central programs are performing in Vinkovci and Vukovar.Every year, about twenty professional puppet theaters from the country, the Croatian diaspora and guests from other countries take part in the event.The program includes about twenty performances a day, the festival lasts five days, and a total of over a hundred performances are performed in five festival days. The expert associate of the festival is the Croatian Center UNIMA. Since 2006, the Croatian UNIMA Center has been awarding lifetime achievement awards in the field of puppetry. The ceremony is being held at the Vukovar City Museum, and the winners, along with a cash prize and a Charter, will receive the Šokac art statue, designed especially for the occasion by the famous artist Zlatko Bourek.

THE ACTOR’S FILM FESTIVAL is a film festival dedicated to an actor on a feature film.The festival starts in the second week of October in Vinkovci. Filmmakers Association of Croatia elects the official jury of the festival.At the end of the festival, after all the film screenings, the jury decides on four acting awards.The festival was initiated, organized and produced by the Art organization Asser Savus in partnership with HDFD (Filmmakers Association of Croatia).The awarded actors receive the Golden Orion and Silver Orion awards. Every year, fifteen high school students take part in the festival, who, after watching the films, evaluate and announce the winner under the guidance of a professor – the best film according to the Youth from the city of Vinkovci.

SMOKI- Slavonian mobile cinema

In 2020, The Art organization Asser Savus launched the project SMOKI – SLAVONIAN MOBILE CINEMA.The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia through the Public Call for Encouraging Entrepreneurship in Cultural and Creative Industries.

During 2021, as part of this project, numerous programs and film screenings were held in cooperation with city institutions and municipalities of eastern Croatia: Roman Days, Summer Cinema in the Library, Cinema under the Stars, Summer Film Festival in Drenovci, summer and winter cinemas in many places.
The program consists of cinema screenings of the latest popular films, primarily films for children and youth – foreign and domestic feature and animated films for children and youth that are dubbed into Croatian and harmonized with the school program, then popular educational documentaries and family feature films. Films are shown on a large cinema screen measuring 7.5m by 4m with state-of-the-art equipment that can be adapted to indoor and outdoor.

TENA I TENICA – is a drama competition for the best theatrical text addressed to children and young adults. The meetings feature writers for children and young adults who visit schools and present their literary works and lead interactive writing workshops. As part of this program, for the fourth year in a row, with the aim of encouraging the literary creativity of children and youth, the TENA I TENICA Competition was organized as a competition for the best drama text written for children and youth.Primary and secondary school students who write plays as a part of Croatian language and literature classes can apply for the TENICA competition. The award consists of the Charter, the TENICA statue and a set of books published by the First Writers’ Club.
The TENA competition is intended for adult authors who can submit their literary works to win a Charter, a TENA statue and a cash prize.The works are evaluated by an evaluation commission appointed by the HDKDM (Croatian Society of Writers for Children and Youth), and it is consists of two writers for children and young adults and one theatrologist.

Organization

Since 1992, the Asser Savus Art Association has been the initiator and organizer of a number of cultural projects.

Employees of the Asser Savus Art Association today are Slaven Nuhanović and Samir Raguž. Professor Himzo Nuhanović is voluntarily involved in the work of the organization.

The Art Organization Asser Savus collaborates with many theaters, art organizations, theater companies, professional art organizations in Croatia and abroad, independent authors, film directors, actors, producers and volunteer organizations.

Our long-term work has been recognized and through various cultural projects we have gained many friends and associates in all cities and municipalities of the whole Croatian and region.

The projects are financially and professionally monitored by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, Vukovar-Srijem County, the Croatian Audiovisual Center and the cities and municipalities of Vukovar-Srijem County.In addition to the above projects, the artistic organization is involved in the work of many cultural events in this area. We will mention only some of them: Poetry Meetings in Drenovci, Youth and Beauty of Slavonia in Stari Mikanovci, Art Colony in Nuštar, Beautiful ornate Srijem in Ilok.

The Art organization Asser Savus
Kralja Tvrtka Kotromani
a 14
32100 Vinkovci
Republika Hrvatska

Mail: asser.savus@gmail.com
Web: https://assersavus.hr

Telephone:
00385 98 530 668 – Samir Raguž (sraguz@gmail.com)
00385 95 947 5098 – Slaven Nuhanović (slaven.nuhanovic@gmail.com)