How Croatia has become a hub for filmmakers

Croatia has become a hub for filmmakers

ZAGREB, 2 Oct (Hina) – In the last 11 years, 122 projects have been realised and €263 million spent as part of the Filming in Croatia programme, whose success is reflected in an increasing demand for Croatian locations among foreign filmmakers.

Last year alone, there were 14 projects with over 60,000 nights generated and €44.7 million spent, €6.4 million was paid in VAT, and the projects employed over 4,000 people, the programme’s leader said at the recent PROFilm Days symposium in Zagreb.

There were 286 filming days, including 29 in locations with below-average development, and the average consumption per day of filming was €156,000.

Zagreb led the way with 79 filming days, but there was no filming in the eastern region of Slavonia, despite 30% incentives given for filming in regions with below-average development.

“Canary Black” was one of the films which attracted big media attention. Producer Igor Nola said it did not promote Zagreb only during the filming but keeps promoting both the city and Croatia, local film workers and Croatian tourism.

Zagreb has become very recognisable on the European filming map, Nola said, hopeful that it will rank along with Prague, Bratislava, Budapest and Munich.

Zagreb (Photo credit: M Gašparović/Zagreb Tourist Board)

Deputy Mayor Luka Korlaet said Zagreb’s financial gain from the filming of “Canary Black” was €265,600.

The symposium was also addressed by Location Managers Guild International president John Rakich, Benjamin Hendriks from the Netherlands and E.J. Richards from Great Britain, who spoke about filming in Croatia, where they scouted locations for the TV series “Bridgerton”, “The Expanse”, “Shadowhunters” and “Atlanta”, the films “The Conjuring 2” and “The Aeronauts”, and Steve McQueen’s documentary “Occupied City”.

Over the last eight days, they scouted locations all over Croatia, including Istria, Dubrovnik and Varaždin.

We saw great diversity, from city centres to rivers, factories, beautiful places on the coast. We hope to come back one day with a film crew and show them all these lovely locations, said Hendriks.

Dubrovnik

We don’t know what we are looking for until we find it and we need time to think about what we saw, but the most important thing is networking and word-of-mouth, said Rakich.

Croatia has beautiful landscapes, willing partners and a government that see how this industry helps the state, he added.

In scouting locations, the uniqueness of a place is more important than ease of filming somewhere, and Croatia has that, locations that have never been seen before and are easy for filming, said Richards.