Zagreb Film is Croatian film-producing company from Zagreb, founded in 1953.

They have
produced hundreds of animated films, documentaries, television commercials, educational
films and several feature films .In 1956. Zagreb Film formed the Studio for Animated Film.
Thanks to the art film animation , this film company will soon reach world fame. The late
fiftieeths and early sixtieths were characterised by huge international success of the Zagreb
School of Animated Film. It is represented by authors like Nikola Kostelac, Vatroslav
Mimica, Duan Vukoti and Vladimir Kristl. The first major success was a Grand Prix award
in Venice for the animated short Samac (Lonely guy) by Vatroslav Mimica.
Among many prizes won by Zagreb Film, in 1962 Duan Vukoti won the American
Academy Award for the animated film The Ersatz (Surogat) and became the first nonamerican Oscar winner. Surogat is a simple story about the man who takes a trip to the beach
and every object he brings with him, no matter how unlikely, is inflatable.
After that Nedeljko Dragi with his film Tup-Tup and Zlatko Grgi (in collaboration with Bob
Godfrey, Great Britain) with the film Dream Doll were nominated for the Oscar. In thirty
years of rich production independent animated films from Zagreb won a number of
international awards and recognitions This school has given over 400 film titles to the
European film heritage.
In its history Zagreb Film produced four animated series: Hound for Hire, Inspector Mask,
Professor Balthazar and The Little Flying Bears, and the last two had great success on TV
screens worldwide
Their probably most famous product was the cartoon series Professor Balthazar (Croatian:
Profesor Baltazar), created by Zlatko Grgi, about an amusing professor who solved various
imaginative problems. Fifty-nine episodes of the cartoon were made between 1967 and 1974
The cartoon has been shown in subsequent years in several countries besides the former
Yugoslavia, including United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the
Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Spain, Iran, Greece, Canada
and Zimbabwe. The cartoon was also shown in the United States in the 1980s on Pinwheel as
well as on the ABC in Australia
The Little Flying Bears (Croatian: Mali letei medvjedii) is an animated television series
produced by Zagreb Film and CinGroupe. It was a Canadian/Croatian co-production which

originally aired in 1990. This cartoon helps children realize the importance of protecting the
environment. The series shows the harmful effects of pollution and fires as well as the
important role of the ecosystem.
The Zagreb school was revolutionary for the animations of the 1950s, because it abandoned
the Disney-like cartoon style, and introduced visual elements of avant-garde abstract painting,
constructivism and cubism. The Zagreb school was lively and successful during the 1960s
and early 1970s, but after that Croatian animation faded and today it does not have the global
role it used to have.
The highly regarded Italian reviewer and publicist, a specialist for animated film Giannalberto
Bendazzi in 1999 made a list of 88 biggest animated films in the history of world animation
and he included no less than 8 films by Zagreb Film.
Zagreb Festival is considered one of the four most significant animated film festivals in the
world, along with Annecy (France), Hiroshima (Japan) and Ottawa (Canada), and it is known
under the slogan Z is for Zagreb.

The Pula Film Festival (Croatian: Festival igranog filma u Puli) is the oldest Croatian film
festival which is held annually in a Roman amphitheater known as the Pula arena. When it
was established, in 1954, it was known as the Festival of Yugoslav Film, and it quickly
became the most important national film festival in SFR Yugoslavia. The first Croatian film
ever to be presented in the Arena is Branko Belans Koncert.
Award categories and the festival concept were modeled according to the Academy Awards.
However, unlike the Academy Awards, the festival usually marked the beginning of a new
season for filmmakers, not its ending. In 1991 the festival was cancelled because of the
outbreak of the war and the related breakup of Yugoslavia. In 1992 the festival was restarted,
but it was renamed in Pula Film Festival (Filmski festival u Puli). In 1995 it was renamed
again and called Croatian Film Festival (Festival hrvatskog filma) to emphasize its now
exclusively Croatian character. However, since the Croatian film industry had only several
new titles per year, the festival's popularity rapidly faded. In order to improve this, in 2001 the
festival was opened for foreign films for the first time in its history, and was renamed once
again to Croatian and European Film Festival (Festival hrvatskog i europskog filma). From

then on, apart from screenings of Croatian films, the festival also regularly offers an
international program.
Golden Arena is a name for festival award. All the Croatian produced feature films made in
the last 12 months are screened at the festival and everyone involved in making them
automatically qualify for the Golden Arena award in their respective category.The awards are
given by the jury made up of prominent film critics, directors, actors, etc. Last year winner of
the Grand Golden Arena was the action war film Number 55 by Kristijan Mili . The film is
based on a true story of a small group of Croatian soldiers.