Oscar-Nominated Film ‘Virunga’ Part of Upcoming 11th ZagrebDox

The International Documentary Film Festival ZagrebDox this year begins its second decade…

The 11th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival ZagrebDox will take place from 22 February to 1 March 2015 at Cineplexx Kaptol Centre in Zagreb. Along with a series of recognisable and well-attended programmes, the 11th edition of the Festival features a few novelties trying to bring the documentary form as close to the audience as possible.

This year’s rich International Competition programme offers many surprises, among others, the Oscar and BAFTA nominee ‘Virunga’, a film about a ruthless fight for Congo’s natural resources, directed by Orlando von Einsiedel.

Virunga is an incredible tale of a group of brave individuals putting their lives in jeopardy to build a better future for Africa. Situated in the vast forests of eastern Congo, Virunga National Park is one of the areas with the greatest biodiversity in the world and the last remaining mountain gorilla habitat. In this wild and magical landscape, a small but feisty team of rangers is guarding the UNESCO-protected world heritage from armed militia, poachers and oil companies trying to take control over Congo’s natural resources.

The film has its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival 2014, and until now has won 23 awards, including the best new talent at the prestigious Canadian HotDocs and Tribeca Festival’s innovation award. Virunga is the current Oscar and BAFTA nominee in the documentary film category.

In addition to the International and Regional Competition, ZagrebDox features a series of its trademark official sections like Biography Dox, Musical Globe, Happy Dox, Controversial Dox, Masters of Dox, State of Affairs, Teen Dox, Factumentaries and ADU Dox. They will be joined by two retrospectives of Croatian documentarians, and some new categories trying to intensify the audience’s documentary experience.

Numerous interesting guests from the region and all over the world are arriving at ZagrebDox again this year, and the training programme ZagrebDox Pro’s 11th edition is gathering film professionals at a series of workshops and the only regional documentary pitching forum.

Over the past ten years, ZagrebDox has been visited by over 200,000 viewers, and more than 15,000 films were shown at around 2,000 screenings. Over 150 films and a large number of festival guests are expected from around the world at this year’s festival.