NEW BOOK RELEASES BY CROATIAN PUBLISHERS
HOME OF CROATIAN VETERANS
11 July 2025 – 2 p.m.
DR. SC. ZLATKO VIDAČKOVIĆ
CROATIAN NEWSPAPER CRITICISM AND CONTEMPORARY NATIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHY
Publisher Kulturni klub
The focus of this book, based on the doctoral dissertation Trends in Newspaper Criticism of Croatian Feature Fiction Films, defended at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zagreb, is the scientific study of contemporary Croatian newspaper film criticism. The author chose this theme for the dissertation and book because of insufficient research of Croatian film criticism, as well as of contemporary Croatian feature fiction film and its critical reception. The period from 2001 was chosen because of significant political and social changes that started at the beginning of the 2000s, which reflected in the change in the selection of film projects that received state and international support (the establishing of the Film Council, membership in Eurimages), as well as in the themes of Croatian feature fiction films and the directorial approach to addressing relevant social issues. The observed period concludes with 2019, the last year before the pandemic, following which changes occur that need to be covered by a new study. The study is structured around individual annual editions of Pula Film Festival.
HOME OF CROATIAN VETERANS
11 July 2025. – 2:30 p.m.
VELJKO KRULČIĆ: TOMISLAV ČEGIR - TIME OF REDEMPTION AND OTHER FILM AND TELEVISION SCREENPLAYS
Publisher Vedis
Tomislav Čegir (1970‒2024) was one of the best and most authoritative film and comic book critics in Croatia. He wrote the books Croatian Film Directors 1 (2009), Film Spaces (2001), Revealing Comic Books (2018), Film Reviews (2018), and Comic Books – Art of Layout (2021). He received the Vladimir Vuković Award for Film Criticism in 2009, and in 2019 he was a jury member at Pula Film Festival.
His sixth book is a publishing and film ‘miracle’ of sorts, as until recently only a few knew anything about its contents. It focuses on screenplays for three films: Vrijeme iskupljenja, Noć u gradu, and Distant Guns (“the first” Croatian western, in which all dialogue is in English), and for the feature-length TV film S pištoljem u ruci. Along with four screenplays, the book also includes texts by film critics Josip Grozdanić, Karolina Čegir, and Veljko Krulčić.
HOME OF CROATIAN VETERANS
11 July 2025 – 3 p.m.
LUKAS NOLA MONOGRAPH
This monumental monograph dedicated to one of the most prominent Croatian directors of modern times – Lukas Nola, presents texts by more than thirty authors, spanning almost 450 pages, who write about his abundant creative body of work from various perspectives – from live action films, through television and theatre projects, to music and poetry. This is an exceptionally abundant and diverse monograph that, other than analytical and critical texts, also includes interviews with Nola’s closest collaborators – primarily directors of photography, as well as excerpts from screenplays, storyboards, newspaper articles, archive set photographs, and personal letters. The monograph includes texts by authors such as Nataša Govedić, Tomislav Brlek, Ana Đorđić, Jelena Modrić, Irena Sever Globan, Dušan Milenković, Adrian Pelc, Krunoslav Lučić, Dejan Durić, Karla Lončar, Iva Rosandić, Tomislav Šakić, Višnja Pentić, Ejla Kovačević, Mario Kozina, Željka Franulović, Ivan Veljača, Dinko Štimac, Dean Duda, Marko Pogačar, Dragan Jurak, and Dino Divković. A special chapter titled Memories presents personal accounts by Lukas’ collaborators, students, and friends, including Goran Grgić, Jelena Miholjević, Lana Barić, Borna Zidarić, and Saša Runjić. The monograph ends with a collection of letters from students of the Academy of Dramatic Art compiled by director Sonja Tarokić for the director’s memorial.
The monograph is edited by Tin Bačun and coeditors Nikica Gilić and Dunja Ivezić, who is also the editor of the archive and images. The author of the visual identity of the monograph is Roberta Bratović from the OAZA designer collective. The monograph was co-published by the association Skladište znanja and Croatian Film Authors’ and Producers’ Association.
HOME OF CROATIAN VETERANS
11 July 2025 – 3:30 p.m.
PRESENTATION OF FILM PUBLICATIONS OF THE CROATIAN FILM ASSOCIATION
Alongside other activities (promoting the work of film clubs and associations, archiving, protecting and restoring films, organising non-professional film revues, courses and workshops for children and adults, and the School of Media Culture, cinema exhibiting, professional production, etc.), for the past twenty-five years, the Croatian Film Association has also been the only Croatian publisher specialised in film literature. Its publishing programme includes translations of important and canonised works in film studies, historical film studies by Croatian theorists and experts, collections of essays and reviews by Croatian film critics and opinion journalists, monographs on prominent Croatian filmmakers, memoir prose by film authors, dramatic works and screenplays, manuals and scientific literature on various fields in film and related media, monograph catalogues of cinema clubs, DVDs, etc.
Diana Nenadić, head of publishing at the Croatian Film Association, film critic and translator, will present four new publications from 2024 and 2025 at the 72nd Pula Film Festival: Screening Modernism: European Art Cinema, 1950-1980, a Croatian translation of the encyclopaedic work on European film modernism by Hungarian film expert András Bálint Kovács; Living Images/Levande Bilder. Contributions to the History of Swedish Film, a book of reflections on Swedish film by Janica Tomić, film and Scandinavian studies expert, who passed away prematurely; Audiovision of Croatian Film. Examples of Contemporary Composing Practices, a collection of interviews and music and film reflections on Croatian film music composers by Irena Paulus; and the seventeenth book by film theorist and critic Hrvoje Turković, On Experimental Film. Notion, Contexts, Historical Review, Portraits, mostly dedicated to Croatian experimental film.
