About ZagrebDox Pro: Confessions

ZagrebDox: Confessions is a special edition of the traditional Pro section intended for film professionals on a mission to make their documentary ideas come true. In 2022, ZagrebDox turns eighteen and with the coming of age it is a natural decision to dedicate this year’ programme for professionals to those who have yet to become – final year film school students and all those working on their professional documentary debut.

The word ‘confessions’ in Croatian has a double meaning: confessions and testimonies. A small number of participants and their projects in an intimate, friendly atmosphere will go through the confessions of regional participants and the recognition of international mentors with a clear goal: exchange of experiences, advice, perspectives and ideas related to specific projects.

During the four workshop days, participants develop ideas for their projects through individual sessions and group presentations with mentors. The mentors are renowned professionals Želimir Žilnik and Sari Volanen. In addition to working on their films, lectures and interviews with top film professionals are organised for the participants.

During the workshop, the projects’ weaknesses and virtues are identified: from writing good synopses, reviewing dramaturgical lines, characters, authorial approach, all the way to analysing the budget and financial plan of the project. In addition to Volanen and Žilnik, Vanja Jambrović, Rea Rajčić, Peter Kerekes, Stacey Woelfel, Florijan Lacko, Nenad Puhovski, Klara Petrović, Martina Petrović, Anđela Rostuhar, Davor Rostuhar and Boris Veličan will take part in the role of experienced professionals at Pro Confessions.

In collaboration with Doclisboa festival, one of the projects will be selected to participate in their industry program Nebulae that will take place in October in Lisbon.

Student projects of numerous film schools from Europe have applied for this year’s ZagrebDox Pro. Among them are: Film Academy in Vienna, DocNomads (Hungary, Belgium, Portugal), ZeLIG (Italy), Academy of Performing Arts Sarajevo, Faculty of Dramatic Arts Belgrade, Faculty of Dramatic Arts Cetinje, SAE Institute Belgrade, Faculty of Media and Communications Belgrade, AGRFT Ljubljana, Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and Art Academy in Split.

ZagrebDox PRO takes place free of charge and is supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the City of Zagreb and the Croatian Film Directors’ Guild.