The third edition of the pitching programme Script Your Hit, aimed at projects in the phase of development that successfully combine authorial and commercial sensibilities, will also include a workshop for screenplay development. The workshop is organised in cooperation with the Croatian Screenwriters and Playwrights Guild (SPID), and will be held in three modules (online in early May, in Zagreb in early June, and during the Festival). This programme was initiated to meet the need for projects that are equally attractive to festival, niche, and wider audiences. Applications for the pitching were open exclusively to Croatian majority productions with focus on comedy, biographical, and children’s film genres that have not yet received approval for production funds from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre or other film funds. The selected applicants will be invited to participate in a preparation workshop for the pitching under the mentorship of producer Vanja Jambrović, and will go on to present their projects to a three-member jury. The best project will receive a prize of 10,000 EUR from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and the distribution company Blitz.
WORKSHOP MENTORS: Vinko Brešan, Ljubica Luković, Mitja Okorn
MENTOR FOR PITCHING PREPARATION: Vanja Jambrović
Vinko Brešan
Vinko Brešan was born in Zagreb in 1964. His debut, low-budget feature How the War Started on My Island is the highest-grossing film in Croatia after independence. His films Marshal Tito’s Spirit and Witnesses received awards at festivals in Berlin and Karlovy Vary, and his fourth film Will Not Stop There won the FIPRESCI Prize at Karlovy Vary. The film The Priest’s Children is the most watched Croatian film in the 21st century, and was nominated for Best Comedy by the European Film Academy. The TV series Diary of the Great Perica, which he co-wrote and directed, won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Comedy TV Series and the Heart of Europe for Best TV Series of Eastern Europe in 2021. He also directs for the theatre.
Ljubica Luković
Ljubica Luković is a Cologne based writer from Serbia. She graduated in dramaturgy from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, and earned her master’s degree in serial storytelling from IFS in Cologne. The series Awake, which she co-authored, premiered at Canneseries in 2021, where it won the Audience Award. Her debut feature, How I Learned to Fly, premiered in February 2022 and went straight to the top of the domestic box office with an audience of more than 230,000. She also wrote for the series Blok 27 and Apsolutnih 100, and is currently developing film and series projects for several European markets.
Mitja Okorn
Mitja Okorn is a director of numerous award-winning commercials, music videos and feature films. In 2004 his debut feature film Here and There became a major hit in his home country of Slovenia. In 2008 he received the British Council’s International Young Film Entrepreneur of the Year Award (IYFEY). In the same year he directed the wildly popular TV series 39 and a Half for Polish network TVN and later, the hit romantic comedy Letters to Santa. His third film, Planet Single, was released in 2016 to critical acclaim and broke attendance records during its second week of release. In addition to his feature film work, Mitja has directed over 30 music videos. In 2020 Mitja directed the feature film Life In A Year starring Jaden Smith, Cara Delevingne & Cuba Gooding Jr. Shortly after, he made his producing debut with Netflix’s All My Friends Are Dead, written and directed by his long-time assistant Jan Belcl. Both films have had successful worldwide releases. In 2024, Mitja directed another Netflix film, a sports drama called Boxer which he co-wrote with Ivan Bezmarević and Lucas Coleman.
Vanja Jambrović
Vanja Jambrović graduated in Comparative Literature and Philosophy from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and in production from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. Since 2009, she has worked as producer at Restart, an association specialised in documentary film. The documentary films she produced have won more than 150 awards at international film festivals and were preselected for the European Film Award twice (Valerija, 2024, and Srbenka, 2019). Srbenka has won a total of 23 awards at film festivals, including the Doc Alliance Award. Her films have won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Film three times (Valerija, directed by Sara Jurinčić in 2024, Museum of the Revolution, directed by Srđan Keča in 2022, and Srbenka, directed by Nebojša Slijepčević in 2018). She was a part of international workshops for film producers at Cannes, Jihlava, and Eurodoc, teaches two courses at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, and since 2022, she has been a mentor at the international workshop for developing feature
length documentary films for the international market, Documentary Campus Masterschool from Germany. She was a guest lecturer at international documentary film workshops such as Ex Oriente, BDC Discoveries, and Circle Women Doc Accelerator.
