История хорватского кинематографа и Загребская школа анимации

Filmmaking in Croatia

Although motion pictures appeared in Croatia relatively early, for most of the early 20th Century film was almost exclusively the domain of a few dedicated amateur enthusiasts, most notably Josip Karaman in Split and, later, Oktavijan Miletić in Zagreb. In 1906, the first permanent movie theater was established in Zagreb. Josip Halla produced and directed early documentaries in 1911 and 1912. The first full length movie was Brcko u Zagrebu released in 1917, and directed by Arsen Maas. It was followed by Matija Gubec, released in the same year and directed by Aca Binički. Neither of these movies survive to this day. The Ministry of Culture and Media also cofinances approximately 60 minutes of animation per year, plus documentaries and experimental films which have a bigger cultural prestige in Croatia then in other countries of former Yugoslavia. National cinema attendances average at 2.7 million tickets bought by a population of around 4.5 million.

The history of animation in Croatia begins with two short animated commercials by Sergej Tagatz in 1922 as a part of Jadran Film. This was followed by animations produced by Dom narodnog zdravlja such as Ivin zub (Ivo's Tooth), Macin nos (Kitty's Nose), all of which were directed by Milan Marijanović and drawn by Petar Papp in 1928. In 1929, the first completely animated short was made, entitled Martin u nebo, martin iz neba.

Zagreb has its own animation film school, Zagrebačka škola crtanog filma (Zagreb Cartoon School). It was given that name at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959, when eight Zagreb cartoons were screened, and the French film historian Georges Sadoul first time named l'école de Zagreb (Zagreb School). The school was based on the production company Zagreb Film, famous for its symbol a little horse. The most notable member of school (which was never a school in a proper, educational sense) was Montenegro born author Dušan Vukotić, winner of the 1963 Oscar for his animated short Surogat. He was the first non American to win the Oscar for animated film. Other important members were Vatroslav Mimica (later a feature filmmaker), and Vlado Kristl, who left Croatia in the early 1960s after the banning of his avant garde, experimental cartoon Don Kihot (Don Quixote). 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. A failure of the school was that it never experimented with other animation techniques than cartoons. Also, it never reached level of proper industry, remaining more like an artistic workshop. 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.

Many Croats have participated in world cinema, including actor director Rade Šerbedžija, actor Goran Višnjić, producer Branko Lustig, and actress Mira Furlan. Furthermore, John Malkovich and Eric Bana are of Croatian ancestry.