An international documentary film festival – even better this year!

The renowned International Documentary Film Festival, ZagrebDox 2013, will introduce many novelties this year and, according to organizers, it will be better than ever. Zagreb is the place to be between February 24th and March 3rd if you wish to attend screenings of some of the best current documentary films in the world, a large pitching forum and numerous concurrent workshops. The number of lecturers will also be far greater this year than ever before.

This year’s ZagrebDox 2013 – an International Festival of Documentary Film, which will take place between February 24th and March 3rd, will feature the most diverse program yet.

This annual documentary film festival has been taking place in the Croatian capital since 2005. The idea behind its establishment was to offer audiences and experts insight into current documentary production, to encourage the production of documentaries, and to strengthen international and regional co-production. Thanks to its quality programme orientation with specialized themes and creative forms, it is a unique festival of its kind in Croatia as well as Europe. 

Since its first edition, the festival has grown, having featured screenings of countless award winning documentaries from around the world. It has been visited by numerous eminent authors and film specialists, and it has featured many gatherings as well as workshops. This year’s programme will be more diverse than ever.
Apart from the standard film screening programme at the Movieplex Cinemas at Kaptol Centre, there will also be a large pitching forum with possibilities for individual meetings of interested project teams and the forum lecturers. The number of workshops this year will be greater than ever before. 

This year’s edition will feature yet another novelty – screenings of the five best cell-phone-made documentary films with the theme “My Neighbour is a European…” running up to 15 minutes and submitted by January 11th to the Phone Dox contest.  More about the contest and the programme of Zagreb Dox can be found on the festival’s official website at http://zagrebdox.net.

Along with the aforementioned contest, March 2nd will also feature a one day event, Phone Dox, providing the audience with an opportunity to participate in a course given by a renowned European director.

However, what makes the festival interesting is certainly the competitive program, which is divided into regional and international categories. The international category features films by authors from around the world. However, these are not commercial films but mostly short films shot and produced over the last year which focus on all things new, brave, innovative…

The competitive program has its awards – the Large Stamp for the best film from the international as well as the regional category, and the Small Stamp for the best film by young authors under the age of 35. Also, there is the HT Award for best film according to the audiences, and the special award - Movies That Matter, for the film that best promotes human rights.

Apart from featuring competitive programmes, the festival also screens non-competitive ones, including retrospectives, films focused on specific subjects, genres, techniques and aesthetics.