ZAGREB, 1 July 2022 - At the beginning of July, the Croatian Independent Cinemas Network and Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC) will start screening Ukrainian films in independent cinemas throughout Croatia, where visitors will have the opportunity to see three Ukrainian classics and three contemporary productions.

The program will be held until September in more than 20 cinemas. The screenings have been organised in cooperation with the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre.

The three Ukrainian classics that will be shown to the Croatian audience are: "Man with a Movie Camera" from 1929, "Operation Dowry" from 1961 and "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" from 1965. HAVC noted that these masterpieces of Ukrainian cinema are excellent starting points to get to know Ukrainian film culture.

A special partner of the Film Borscht programme is the Ukrainian Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre, and the programme also has a humanitarian character with a fundraising campaign for the centre.

The programme begins in July and in some cinemas it will run through August and September. 

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

May 24, 2021 - Croatian cinemas had 48% fewer shows and 70% fewer visitors in 2020 than in 2019 because of the pandemic, and they also saw a 70% drop in gross revenue, the State Bureau of Statistics (Statistics) DZS) reported on Monday.

Due to the lockdown of cultural and educational institutions caused by the pandemic, most cinematographers (51%) worked between seven to nine months.

There were 99,106 shows and 1,503,306 visitors. There was a significant decrease in the number of shows and visitors in all counties, with the exception of Karlovac County, where the number of shows and visitors increased compared to 2019.

Croatia has six summer cinemas, and they registered the opposite trend, reporting 108% more shows and 53% more visitors compared to 2019.

Summer and traveling cinemas had the smallest decrease in revenue (-11%).

"It's obvious that a lot more viewers decided to watch films outdoors due to the circumstances and epidemiological measures," DZS said in its report.

In 2019 the annual gross revenue from regular cinematographic content amounted to HRK 160,365,123 and HRK 1,351,524 from alternative content, whereas in 2020, it amounted to HRK 47,474,883 HRK 252,302, respectively.

The fall in revenue inevitably meant a fall in the number of workers (-14%).

The data is based on annual reports submitted by cinematographers.

Last year there were 75 cinematographers in Croatia, 46 of whom had one screen while 22 had more screens.

Croatia had a total of 174 cinemas with 34,303 seats.

For more on lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

Cinestar's cinemas include 23 multiplexes with 145 digitised halls in eleven cities across the Republic of Croatia.

As Sergej Novosel Vuckovic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 9th of April, 2019, the Cinestar cinema chain is the best cinema exhibitor in the whole of Europe, and Blitz-Cinestar is a true example of a company whose achievements, projects, growth and leadership in the industry continue to new standards and push the boundaries of this field.

The well known cinema chain won its new prestigious title after being rated by the International Cinema Association (UNIC), which brings together cinemas from 37 European countries and surrounding regions.

The award will be accepted by co-founder and board member of Blitz-Cinestar Hrvoje Krstulović in June at the CineEurope Cinemas Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

As previously stated, Cinestar's cinemas include 23 multiplexes with 145 digitised halls across eleven cities in the Republic of Croatia from Zagreb down to Dubrovnik, as well as in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, with more than 23,000 seats in total, and a majority of 4.8 million cinema tickets sold in Croatia (according to CBS) for Cinestar's cinema halls.

This chain of multiplexes, which has been being managed by Blitz-Cinestar since the beginning of 2003, is the largest cinema in Croatia's close region. After Split Cinestar's 4DX in the Mall of Split won an award for the best European cinema in Europe last year, winning the title of the best cinema chain on the continent is the shining gem of this company's impressive business crown.

"It's an extraordinary honour to be able to receive this valuable CineEurope award and a pleasure and [a source of] pride that our profession has recognised our constant efforts and investments, as well as our knowledge. Our vision of a five star cinema was clearly a hit. CineStar has become a synonym for the best cinema experience in Europe, we've created a new generation of cinema chain in which we've brought some revolutionary formats like Imax, 4DX, created the Gold Class and Kaptol Boutique Cinema concepts, and destination cinemas with bars and various amenities where visitors like to spend time and everyone finds something to suit them,'' Krstulović stated.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business and lifestyle pages for much more.

Click here for the original article by Sergej Novosel Vuckovic for Poslovni Dnevnik