PULA: Final preparations are ongoing for the filming of Pula, the debut feature of renowned Croatian documentarist Andrej Korovljev produced by Kinematograf. The filming is set to start in mid-September 2021 after a year of COVID-19 induced delays, and should last until the end of October 2021.

DUBROVNIK: NEM Dubrovnik 2021, which will be held 6-9 September, will focus heavily on the streaming business through a series of events that will bring together representatives of European TV channels, telecoms, sports streaming, distribution and production.

ZAGREB: Cannes Camera d’Or winner Murina directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović has been sold by The Match Factory to the UK and Ireland, where it will be distributed by Modern Films. Murina is a coproduction between Croatia, Brazil, the United States and Slovenia.

PULA: The 68th Pula Film Festival, which ran for the first time under the direction of  new artistic director Pavo Marinković from 17-24 July 2021, gave the Golden Arenas for the best Croatian feature and the best director to the Blue Flower by Zrinko Ogresta.

ZAGREB: The Croatian/Italian/Swedish documentary project Being Related to John Malkovich by Luka Mavretić received the HBO Europe Award at ZagrebDox Pro 2021.

ZAGREB: The Croatian Audiovisual Centre distributed 2.1 m EUR  / 15.8 m HRK for the production of 20 feature, documentary and animation films. A total of 247,000 EUR / 1.9 m HRK was awarded to five minority coproductions.

ZAGREB: Animafest Zagreb 2021 ended on 13 June 2021, after more than 350 screened films and numerous accompanying events in the six days of the festival, with the award ceremony at the SC Cinema, where the Russian film The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks by Andrei Khrzhanovsky received the Grand Jury Prize in the Long Animated Film Competition.

ZAGREB: The number of cinemagoers plummeted to 1,503,306 in the pandemic year of 2020, marking a 70 percent decline compared to 2019. Only two percent of the cinemagoers chose to watch a Croatian film, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Croatia. The six Croatian open-air summer cinemas had 108 percent more performances and 53 percent more visitors compared to 2019.

ZAGREB: Croatia is again becoming an attractive filming destination, following the year of the pandemic. FNE talked to Chris Marcich, head of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), about dozens of new projects that are being filmed or announced.

ZAGREB: Over 300 artists, mainly musicians and film workers, got vaccinated in a campaign initiated by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media and the Croatian Institute for Public Health. The vaccination took place in the Croatian Music Institute in Zagreb and is expected to be the first in a series of similar actions, intended to boost audiovisual production and to restart larger-scale cultural events in Croatia.