In 1953, the Croatian Film Workers Association founded Zagreb film, specialized in documentaries and short feature films, rising to fame at international film festivals during the 1960s. The establishing of the animated film studio in 1956 marked the start of the unstoppable rise of the Zagreb artistic animation with talents from the previous period (Dušan Vukotić, Nikola Kostelac, Vjekoslav Kostanjšek…) joined by young forces (Vatroslav Mimica, Branko Ranitovic, Pavao Štalter…). The artistic film animation helped this production house become famous and animated films from Zagreb won countless awards and accolades (among others, Dušan Vukotić won the Academy Award with his animated film Surogat/The Substitute in 1962, as the first non-American Oscar winner). 

Zagreb film produced four animated series: Hound for Hire, Inspektor Maska, Profesor Baltazar and Leteći medvjedići.

Animafest Zagreb, established in 1972 by the decision of ASIFA, Zagreb Film production company and the City of Zagreb, is the second oldest film festival in the world wholly dedicated to animation and among the top four animated film events in the world.

Grow Up to Be a Little Tree (2019, 05’ 40’’)

Directed, written and edited by: Noemi Ribić

Collonello Futurista (2019, 18’45’’)

Directed, written and edited by: Vladislav Knežević

Iris (2020, 08’ 14’’)

Directed, written, animated and illustrated by: Lucia Bužančić

Hedgehog Spikiney (2020, 06’ 47’’)

Written and directed by: Tihoni Brčić

Spaced Out (2019, 02’ 42’’)

Directed, written and edited by: Stella Hartman

From 2018, in cooperation with Al Jazeera Media Network and Al Jazeera Media Institute, Al Jazeera Balkans organizes the international documentary film festival AJB DOC. Martovski Festival will screen two AJB DOC award winners, co-produced by Al Jazeera Balkan and Brand Me (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

A Feat Of Perseverance

2018. / 48’ 38”  

Directed by: Nerminka Emrić

Audience Award winner for the best documentary, AJB DOC 2019

The story deals with the forgotten hero of the past, Marin Radul, known in Communist Yugoslavia as the Titan from the island of Mljet. With his own hands, and assisted by his wife Nike, Marin dug through a 96-meter-long rock to create agricultural land. This story celebrates a man by remembering the fragments of past times unimaginable to new generations. 

*Serbian premere

Neighbours

2020. / 29’

Directed by: Nerminka Emrić

AJB Programme Award, AJB DOC 2020

Nearly three decades after their lives were upended by Europe’s most brutal conflict since the World War II, residents of eastern Bosnia, many of them former refugees, and their first neighbors across the border in Serbia are again witnessing human suffering. This timethose who suffer before their eyes are migrants and refugees escaping war and persecution in their faraway homelands. 

*Serbian premiere

Nerminka Emrić

Holds a political science degree, investigative journalist, film director. Worked at B&H Television, Federal Television, Sarajevo Television, and the Center for Investigative Journalism. Founder of Brand-Me Productions. The auteur of three documentaries. 

Directed by: Leon Rizmaul

Production company: HRT

Abandoned, outdated machines tell a story from a record stored in a television archive. The action time is displayed through four cycles. Communication machines reproduce information about humans, their existence, their presence hermetically sealed in an era. When machines for reproduction die, their stories die with them. Stories of unfulfilled human aspirations and messages to future generations disappear in the entropy of the record. What can save us from the relentless river of oblivion?

Leon Rizmaul 

Born in 1972 in Sisak. Works at Documentary department of Croatian national TV. Among other things dedicates professional carrier to preservation and promotion of archival film footage. Editor in chief in everyday historical tv show TV Kalendar. From 2015 to 2018, directed the reconstruction of 50 episodes of archival series „Portraits and Encounters“. As a screenwriter, director and executive producer, he contributed to various festival film success. He directed popular films „The Other Side of Welles“ (2005), „Vukovar of My Youth“ (2012); „Goran’s way“ (2013)… As executive producer and screenwriter, he won several acclamations for three documentaries from „Probation serial“. In 2016 film called „4.7“ won Grand Prix at ZagrebDox as only Croatian winner in the history of that renowned festival. Member of Croatian film director’s guild.

*Belgrade premiere

Directed by: Branko Šmit

Produced by: HRT

Ivo Gregurević lived his life like in the movies. Branko Schmidt, his close friend, and associate decided to make a very personal biopic about him. Interviews with various people showed the unknown side of Ivo. Ivo, who hated to be alone, called people in the middle of the night, visited people without calling first, drew people around him. And then, life decided to be ironic: Ivo danced his last dance alone, in the night between January 1 and 2, 2019. The film had its world premiere in Orašje, the hometown of Ivo Gregurević, the place where this actor established Days of Croatian Films.

Branko Schmidt

Born in 1957 in Osijek, Croatia. After studying economics, he enrolled at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, Film and TV Directing Department. In 1981 he directed his graduating film – TV play Early Maturing of Marko Kovač. In 1988 he directed his first feature, Hawk did not Love Him, co-written with Fabijan Šovagović and won the Best Debutant Award at the Pula Film Festival. After that, he directed Đuka Begović, Vukovar: The Way Home, Christmas in Vienna  – about sensible individuals amidst the horrors of war, and won the Golden Arena for the Best Screenplay in Pula in 1997. Three years later, he won the same award for his film Queen of the Night, Croatian entry for the Academy Award. His most awarded film, a drama about human trafficking, Mellon Route. In 2009, Metastases 2009 won the Golden Arena in Pula, and the Best Film Award at the Belgrade Film Festival FEST and was the first in a series of three films. The second was Vegetarian Cannibal  in 2012, and the third was Agape in 2017. These films are about the issues of contemporary Croatian society, such as nationalism, corruption, criminal, disapproval of diversity. The documentary Close to Heart – Ivo Gregurević is a tribute to this great Croatian and Yugoslav actor.

*Serbian premiere

The distance between us and the sky (2019. / 09’)

Directed by: Vassilils Kekatos 

Two strangers meet for the first time at an old gas station.

Play (2017. / 32’)

Directed by: Vangelis Lymberopoulos  

Most adults dream of staying forever young. Five people will try to make this dream a reality.

Helga is in Lund (2016. / 20’)

Directed by: Thelyia Petraki

A woman, a young piano student, an old man, a psychiatrist and a cat. 

Dinner for few (2014. / 10’)

Directed by: Nassos Vakalis

An allegoric socio-political film showing a man’s effort to survive in a recirculating system.

Hector Malot – The last day of the year (2018. / 25’)

Directed by: Jacqueline Lentzou

The last day of the year is dawning under the moon, while Sophia has a dream. 

Index (2019. / 12’)

Directed by: Nicolas Kolovos  

The boat that will transfer Dana’s family to Europe is ready to go, but his son refuses to leave the truck. 

Written and directed by: Boris Balta

Produced by: Boris Balta, Aid Berbić, Ajša Balta

Production company: RSD Sloboda, Magic Factory, Eventus

A film about 100 years of existence of the Workers’ Sports Association Sloboda (Freedom) from Tuzla, and many Olympians and medal winners it spawned – among them the Bosnia and heruegovina athlete of the century Mirza Delibašić and the athlete of the century of the city of Tuzla, Zlatan Saračević. Each member had the responsibility to be, first of all, a good person and then a successful athlete. The Sloboda Association has established codes of conduct and changed many destinies. This is the story about those destinies.

Boris Balta

Lives and works in Tuzla, where he was born in 1979. An actor at the Tuzla National Theater, director of the Tuzla Film Festival, and producer of film projects, TV and web shows, as well as multimedia projects. As an actor, he played in more than 20 theater plays and several films. As a director and producer, he made three plays, two short films and two documentaries and produced two festivals. Tuzla Film Festival exists since 2012 and is one of the most prominent festivals in B&H. In 2009, he founded the production company Magic Factory, which actively develops the film industry in the Tuzla Canton and has produced many projects so far.

* Regional premiere

Directed by: Sanjin Mirić

Produced by: Sanjin Mirić, Jelena Ćirić, Petr Bergman

Cast: Jelena Ćirić, Lordan Zafranović, archpriest Srđan Jablanović, Vid Luković, Milorad Luković, Zuzana Hrušková, Natali Želinska, Jan Risavy 

Narrator: Tihomir Stanić

Production company: RODOLJUB z.s.

A film about the suffering of Serbian military and civilian prisoners the Great War in Austro-Hungarian camps in the area of present-day Czech Republic. Hard and humiliating life, hunger, cold, abuse, illness, death … The film features Czech and Serbian historians, descendants of inmates, as well as original archival photographs. The film is dedicated to those who have not returned to Serbia and lay buried far from their homeland.

Sanjin Mirić 

Born in 1961 in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a high school student, he started making award-winning amateur films. Since 1987 he lives and works in Prague. He obtained his BA in documentary directing from the Prague Film Academy (FAMU). Since 1991, he has worked in all major TV stations in Prague, mainly directing publicity and entertainment shows. Auteur of several documentaries.

*World festival premiere

Written and directed by: Snježan Lalović

Kazuo Tanaka arrived in Yugoslavia from Japan in 1961, at the same time when they announced that Ivo Andrić had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He never thought he would later translate Andrić, Njegoš and many other Serbian writers into Japanese. In Yugoslavia, he made friends and stayed in touch with them after returning to Japan. He also built his bridges with his friend Hiroshi Yamasaki Vukelić – together, they compiled the first Japanese-Serbo-Croatian dictionary. He returned to the Balkans in 2003 after reading a report in a Japanese newspaper about the Art Festival in Višegrad during the war in B&H. His connections with Yugoslavia lingered on even after his death. Tokyo, Belgrade and Višegrad became permanent guardians of his ashes.

Snježan Lalović 

Born in 1960 in Sarajevo, where he graduated in journalism from the Faculty of Political Sciences. Received his master’s degree from the Faculty of Philosophy in Pale, where he has lived and worked since 1992. Participated in the creation of Serbian Radio and Serbian Television, and directed more than 400 documentary shows on RTRS.

His documentary films won a series of awards at international festivals in Belgrade, Budapest, Serpukhov, East Sarajevo, Athens, Banja Koviljača, Sergiyev Posad…

Director of the Republika Srpska’s Cinematheque.

Written and directed by: Radoslav T. Stanišić 

Producer: Predrag Vukčević

Radomir Bajo Šaranović, Montenegrin, Serbian and Yugoslav theater, television and film director, screenwriter, professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.

Born on December 4, 1937, in the village of Kosic, the hamlet of Kosovi Lug, near Danilovgrad, Montenegro. He died in Belgrade on September 9, 2001, at the age of 63.

The last Yugoslav film romantic.

Besides feature films The Wedding and July 13, Šaranović also made short films and wrote more than 20 screenplays for them. He has directed significant and memorable TV dramas, theater plays.

He was a guest lecturer in a number of film schools worldwide. During his fruitful teaching career, through top lectures where he directly linked theory and practice, he nurtured many generations of film directors, choosing them among the greatest names in Yugoslav film.

He improved the quality of films made at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts – as a mentor on the artistic and professional side, but also as a professional director, who used his business acquaintances to help students make their first professional steps. He established guidelines and creative direction for many generations of filmmakers.

As Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Arts since 1989, then as Minister of Culture of Serbia since 1990, Professor Šaranović ensured the first fund for cinema.

He was the creator and director of the European Film Summer School SILEKT, the Association of College Film Schools.

Radoslav T. Stanišić 

Film and TV director, born in Podgorica. He studied film directing in Prague, obtained his BA in 2000 from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. Holds a doctorate degree in dramatic arts, department of filmology since 2009.

Works as a lecturer at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje. Writes film reviews for the Montenegrin newspaper Dan and the Niš-based film magazine Filaž. Employed at RT Montenegro, where he directed over a thousand TV shows.

Author of the book Hrastovi koje ne obaraju: Ratko Đurović – Velimir Stojanović.

Received about thirty awards and recognitions at home and abroad for his work so far.

Selected filmography

Auteur projects: documentary TV story Charles Bridge, tourism promotional film My Podgorica.

Documentaries (written, directed and produced): At the End of the Road, Destiny, Jaroslav Čermak and Montenegro, The Spiritual Poetics of Father Lazar, High Oaks, The Last YU Film Romantic. 

Short films (written and directed): Simple Action, Thieves, Girl in a Blue Dress, The Professional, The Chosen One. 

*Belgrade premiere

Directed by: Ivana Marinić Kragić

Written by: Ivana Marinić Kragić, Ivana Vuković

Produced by: Ivana Marinić Kragić, Miloš Ivanović

Cast: Maruška Aras, Mia Anočić Valentić, Iva Mihalić, Ana Maras Harmander, Sanja Milardović, Jadranka Elezović, Asja Jovanović, Vlasta Ramljak

Production company: Marinis Media (HR), Set Sail Films (SRB)

Two young nuns meet during a Catholic gathering in Croatia and fall in love. They live in two separate convents, but the spaces they once considered havens of solace and spiritual fulfillment turn out to be more earhly than expected. Disillusioned by the Church and the sexual and psychological abuse within, yet driven by blossoming love, they make the most difficult decision of their life – to leave the convent.

Ivana Marinić Kragić

Co-Founder/Producer at Marinic Media (Croatia). She graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2012 in Zagreb, at the Department of Cinematography. As a Director of photography, she made a dozen short fiction films. Nun of Your Business is her first feature-length documentary as a director and director of photography. As a producer she made several short films and co-produced feature film Love Cuts (2019) and TV series The Only Way Out (2020). She is a board member of Filmmakers Association of Croatia.

*International premiere

Scenario, režija, kamera, montaža, produkcija: Danilo – Lola Ilić

Koprodukcija: Anna Gaspotić, Studio Lux

Glavni lik: Erik Balija

Uprkos svim poteškoćama koje je život stavio pred njega, za Erika ništa nije nemoguće – komponuje, peva, nastupa… Njegove pesme su osvojile brojne nagrade, a snaga i vedrina njegovog duha su očaravajuće.

Danilo – Lola Ilić

Rođen u Vranju, Republika Srbija (tada SFRJ) 1977. Diplomirao filmsku i TV montažu 2002. na Akademiji Umetnosti u Beogradu (BFA) u klasi prof. Andrije Zafranovića, magistrirao filmsku režiju 2007. na filmskoj školi Ohajo univerziteta (MFA). Živi i radi u Puli.

Autor je tri dugometražna dokumentarna filma: „Prašina svakodnevnog života“ (2011), „Mapa puna snova“ (2017) i „Erik“ (2020); dva dugometražna igrana filma: „Distortion“ (2007, magistarski film), „Memoari slomljenog uma“ (2015) i srednjemetražnog dokumentarnog filma „143°“ (2017).

Directed by: Nikola Knežević & Olga Kepčija

Written by: Nikola Knežević

Cast: Srđan Gojković, Zdenko Kolar, Srđan Sacher, Darko Rundek, Vlada Divljan, Dušan Kojić, Siniša Škarica…

Production company: CMC televizija

Croatia Records, the record label that released the largest number of new wave music, this year celebrates 40 years of the new wave. Many interesting releases and reissues mark the anniversary, and the focus is on four vinyls, gems of the new wave: the first albums of Električni orgazam and Haustor, the only album of Šarlo akrobata and the compilation Paket aranžman, that spawned the new wave in the former Yugoslavia. A documentary made in cooperation with CMC television features interviews with many relevant persons about one of the most brilliant musical periods in the history of this region.

Nikola Knežević 
Left the organization and informatics studies to dedicate himself to music and radio, where he built his career first as a host and DJ, then as a journalist and music editor. From the local radio in his native Okučani, his radio journey continues in Nova Gradiška, then in Slavonski Brod. With friends, in 2017, he founded the music portal Music Box, where he acts as the editor-in-chief, music and film critic. Later that year, he became a music editor at the record company Croatia Records. Works on numerous releases, new studio or compilation, and reissues of some of the cult albums in discography history.

Olga Kepčija 
Journalist, presenter and music editor. At first, she worked at Radio Belgrade 202 as a news journalist, then switched her interests to music: since 2001, she has been editing the show Demo ekspres and hosting Hit nedelje. She is the creator and host of the show Linija za rokenrol (2006-2014), and since 2008 she has been organizing Rok godišnjak, the annual selection of the best domestic and ex-YU rock performers. With Vladimir Janković Jet, she managed over 400 shows and concerts throughout Serbia – Caravan 202. She is one of the initiators of the competitive festival of young and non-established rock groups, Demo Masters. Winner of the RTS Annual Award.

*World festival premiere

DAE (1979. / 16’)

Directed by: Stole Popovski

An extract from the Gypsies’ way of living, dedicated to the celebration of St. George’s Day. 

Calendar (1990. / 11’)

Directed by: Meto Petrovski

The film treats the thematic contest of the fresco painting in the church St. George in the village Staro Nagorichane, which presents the cruelty in pursuing the real fighters for Christianity. 

Golgotha (1979. / 16′)

Directed by: Meto Petrovski

Millstones have always been produced in Lesnovo, placed in the Zletovo area, by cutting the rocks at the surrounding mountains. Its production and transport are real Sisyphus labor.

The Border  (1962. / 12′)

Directed by: Branko Ivanovski Gapo

According to the previously determined and agreed day and place, the border between two countries, FNR Yugoslavia (NR Macedonia) and Bulgaria, has been opening for one day.

Liquidation (1983. / 15′)

Directed by: Trajče Popov

One man only is tasked to finish the process of liquidation of the asbestos mine Bogoslovec in the village that has the same name.

Soon the others followed – Lordan Zafranović, Rajko Grlić, Goran Paskaljević, Živko Zalar, Predrag Pega Popović, Viko Filač, Emir Kusturica. To name but a few most famous.

Upon their return to the country of self-management Socialism, before they managed to make their feature films, all of them had under their belt a noteworthy number of short films, mainly produced by local TV networks and state-owned production companies.

This, slightly forgotten segment of their work as well as the anniversary of their first encounter with Prague, justify the retrospective at the 67th edition of the Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival. While these filmmakers are known mainly by their feature films, their works that have been set aside will now be shown for the older people to see them again and the younger ones to see them for the first time.

Milan Nikodijević

Director, screenwriter, Academy of Arts Novi Sad professor

One Photo Tells a Story

2020. / 8’ 22’’

By: Milan Nikodijević

Prodction: ŠTAP & KANAP PRODUCTION i ARBOS

A short recording about the famous photo of dead Jan Palach shot by Predrag Pega Popović in 1969. Part of the research for the feature-length documentary Winter of a Spring, currently in production.

We From Prague // 1967. / 29’

Directed by: Rajko Grlić

To Whom God Created a Beard // 1972. / 30’

Directed by: Goran Marković

Little Neda // 1969. / 30’

Directed by: Srđan Karanović

Day and Night – Square // 1966. / 15’

Directed by: Lordan Zafranović

Mister Hrstka // 1969. / 10’

Directed by: Goran Paskaljević

Legend of Lapot // 1972. / 27’

Directed by: Goran Paskaljević

Lonely Hearts Club // 1969. / 30’

Directed by: Srđan Karanović

Drinkable Water and Freedom 2 & 3 // 1987. / 1999. / 20’

Directed by: Rajko Grlić

Towards the Beginning // 1970.  / 12’

Directed by: Dejan Đurković