Croatia Becoming a Serious Partner in the International Film Business

Croatia is slowly confirming its status as a serious partner in the international film business…

This week the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC) presented its annual report, revealing that expenditure in Croatia from international film productions has almost quadrupled.

“In the past three years, since HAVC has been conducting the incentive system (tax rebate for international film productions) for investment into audiovisual industry, local expenditure has grown from 24.5 to 82.8 million kuna,” said HAVC.

Croatia has attracted a number of overseas projects in recent times, including the globally popular TV series Game of Thrones, Borgia, Crossing Lines, Christmas in the Sun, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Dig and Luc Besson’s The Lake, which have all been shot on different location across Croatia.

“The potential of such incentives to screen tourism and national promotion became visible to the broader public, because the filmmaking process directly promotes development and profitability not only of the film branch, but also, indirectly, of all other related industries: tourism, catering, transportation, production etc.”

Also highlighted in the report was the success story of Croatian films with appearances at over 100 film festivals in the past year. Next to the European Film Academy Award for best short film given to The Chicken by Una Gunjak, and a series of awards to These Are the Rules by Ognjen Sviličić, merits went to documentary films that focused on important social issues through brave and personal stories. They include Happily Ever After by Tatjana Božić, Naked Island by Tiha K. Gudac, Autofocus by Boris Poljak, Mitch – A Diary of a Schizophrenic by Damir Čučić.

(HAVC)