Born in Ljubljana, as the son of the acclaimed film director France Štiglic, Tugo Štiglic appeared at the age of 10 in the Slovenian classic hit Valley of Peace (1956, Triglav film). He gained his first experience in directing as an assistant director to his father and later he continued working as a screenwriter and director for the Slovenian national television RTV Slovenija. He created many feature films, TV portraits, documentaries and also radio plays.

In mid-80s he made A Summer in a Seashell (1986, Studio Viba Film), still one of the most popular Slovenian youth films, followed by the sequel A Summer in a Seashell 2 (1988, Studio Viba Film). After Slovenia regained independency he made another popular family adventure film The Forgotten Treasure (2002, Timaro Productions and RTV Slovenija).

He received many professional and audience awards, including the Metod Badjura Silver Award for best director for Tantadruj (1994, RTV Slovenija), the Celjski vitez Audience Award for A Summer in a Seashell 2 and the Badjura Lifetime Achievement Award at the Festival of Slovenian Film Portorož in 2018.

“Tugo Štiglic was introduced to us for the first time as a young boy in his father's film Valley of Peace and thus anchored himself in our memory as an actor. Later also as a successful director and screenwriter of A Summer in a Seashell, which still lives in the memory of many generations of Slovenian viewers. The members of the Directors Guild of Slovenia will miss him, but his films will remain with us,” Matevž Luzar, the president of the Directors Guild of Slovenia said in a statement.