Portorož - The 24th Festival of Slovenian Film will open in the coastal town of Portorož on Tuesday with the screening of Inventura, a film by Darko Sink. Until Sunday, a total of 54 films will compete for the festival's awards.

Inventura, which premiered at the San Sebastian film festival, is a story of a man whose illusions of the world come crumbling down. "The irony and force of this collapse can be compared to the present, when it is no longer clear what is true and what is 'fake'," Sink said about his first film.

Before the screening, an exhibition will open dedicated to this year's winner of the Badjura Award for lifetime achievements in film, innovator and film sound engineer, Emilija Soklič, one of the first Slovenian professional female film industry workers.

New to the festival is the title Friend of Slovenian Cinema, which has been given to the honorary guest of the festival, Serbian director Slobodan Šijan, author of several films poplar in Slovenia. Šijan will present his new book Writers at the Cinema.

Ten Slovenian films will be in the running for the festival's awards, including four documentaries.

Tijana Zinajić's first film Bitch, a Derogatory Term for a Woman is a film about a period in life when "where you simply get stuck and do not know how to move on". Amoeba by Blaž Završnik is a collaboration with the group Matter, a film that problematises the course of development of modern society.

Established directors Goran Vojnović and Miroslav Mandić will be presented with Once Were Humans and Sanremo, respectively.

Vinko Möderndorfer's Deadlock, a film about an encounter between two married couples from the opposite ends of the social scale, which are brought together by an accident and a tragic event, will be screened for the first time.

Nika Autor will present the story of migrant workers in a documentary Newsreel 80 - Metka, Meki, and Jurij Gruden the story of the company Iskra Delta.

Marija Zidar's Reconciliation is a documentary about the patriarchal society, and Igor Šterk's September Class about a generation from the entire former Yugoslavia that served the army on the Croatian island of Vis before the break-up of Yugoslavia.

A record of nine minority co-production feature films will also be screened, including Morena by Croatian director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, and Heavens Above by Serbian director Srdjan Dragojević.

A total of 21 medium-length and short films will be presented in different sections, including award-winning Granny's Sexual Life, a short animated documentary by Urška Djukić and Amelie Pigeard, Penalty Shot by Rok Biček and Sisters by Kukla.

A dozen films will compete in the category of students' films.