15th ZagrebDox Opens – Welcome to a Week of Outstanding Documentaries

25.02.2019.

After an audience greeting and a brief trip down the memory lane, 15th ZagrebDox was opened with a screening of the film The Night We Fell, attended by Danish director Cille Hannibal.

In five theatres of Kaptol Boutique Cinema on Sunday the 15th ZagrebDox was opened with a screening of the film The Night We Fell, attended by Danish director Cille Hannibal.

The founder and director of ZagrebDox Nenad Puhovski greeted the audience, with a brief overview of the past 15 festival years. “A lot has happened – we saw over 20 000 films, screened over 2000 of them from 77 countries for 290 000 spectators, and introduced a series of novelties into our festival life.”

In an anniversary video many important personalities of the documentary scene shared their opinion about ZagrebDox and documentary film in general. The masters of documentary - Krsto Papić, Veljko Bulajić, Zoran Tadić, Bogdan Žižić, Tomislav Radić, Petar Krelja, and the middle and young generation of our filmmakers – Vinko Brešan, Dalibor Matanić, Igor Mirković, Goran Dević, Irena Škorić, Ognjen Sviličić, Vlatka Vorkapić, Damir Čučić, Zrinko Ogresta, Tatjana Božić, Tiha Klara Gudac, Đuro Gavran, Robert Zuber, Ivan Ramljak, Tonći Gaćina.

Some of the most famous European documentarians also shared their opinion - Marcel Lozinski, Jon Alpert, Jay Rosenblatt, Joshua Oppenheimer, Želimir Žilnik, Mila Turajlić, Talal Derki, Jon Bang Carlsen, Kim Longinotto, Vitalij Manski, Erik Gandini, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Nino Kirtadze, John Appel, Audrius Stonys, experts – Hrvoje Turković, Tue Steen Müller, Rada Šešić, Oliver Sertić, Leena Pasanen, Stefano Tealdi, Silvestar Mileta, Nikica Gilić, Marion Döring, as well as politicians Milan Bandić, Duško Ljuština, Ivo Josipović i Nina Obuljen Koržinek.

After a brief trip down memory lane, Mayor Milan Bandić officially opened the 15th ZagrebDox. “With ZagrebDox screenings of about 100 documentary films, over the next eight days we will open new horizons to the world. ZagrebDox is an important platform to acquaint the audience with Croatian documentary production. Besides, ZagrebDox always speaks up about important and burning social issues, which is why this festival is an artistic introspective depiction of contemporary life and the problems of contemporary man.”

After the screening of The Night We Fell, the audience was greeted by Cille Hannibal, thanking the organisers for giving her film a chance to open this year’s ZagrebDox. She also pointed out the importance of conversation, one of the central points of documentary film.

The 15th edition of International Documentary Film Festival ZagrebDox, taking place at Kaptol Boutique Cinema from Sunday, 24 February to Sunday, 3 March, features 104 documentary films in 16 sections, many attractive official and special film programmes, lectures, Q&As with authors and concerts.

ZagrebDox is held with the support of the City of Zagreb and Croatian Audiovisual Centre, and ZagrebDox Pro with the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA Sub-programme. The general sponsor of the festival is Croatian Telecom.

The photo gallery is available here.