Numerous foreign and domestic film industry experts at the third edition of the PROFilm Days conference

Numerous foreign and domestic film industry experts at the third edition of the PROFilm Days conference at the film conference, PROFilm Days, organized by the Zagreb Film Office in cooperation with the Croatian Audiovisual Center. The conference addresses key issues from the audiovisual industry with many foreign and domestic experts, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be held virtually.
The conference is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Media and the City Office of Culture, so the third edition of PROFilm Days, with HAVC director Chris Marcic, will be opened by State Secretary Krešimir Parl and Advisor to the Head of the Office of Culture Nikola Stojadinović.

Immediately after the official part, the world-renowned producer Paul Ritchie, the winner of the Oscar for the film Millionaire from the Street, 'enters' the virtual studio. Ritchie has filmed several projects in Croatia, and the McMafia series also won an Emmy Award. This year he returned and filmed the British spy series The Ipcress File. At the conference, she will say something more about her experience of shooting in Croatia, and in that, in the role of moderator, he will be assisted by the head of the Zagreb Film Office Mia Pećina Drašković, who collaborated with Ritchie at McMafia.

The pandemic did not have a bad impact on all genres of audiovisual works. Indeed, much has been written about the fact that animation is the only branch of the industry that has continued to operate even during its complete closure. Is this the case and if so, what favoured the continuation of the animation work, but also what changed because of it, will be revealed by several panellists: David Doutel and Vasco Sá, co-founders of the successful BAP animation studio from Portugal, and Bruno Razum, director of the award-winning animated film Do you see them? which will also be displayed. The panel with the official title "Animation - the winner of Covid" starts at 10 am, and the moderator is Draško Ivezić, Pula's director of animated films and owner of the Adriatic Animation studio.

Another important topic that will bring together the best domestic experts in the video game industry, which has been on a dizzying rise for several years. How important is the video game industry for Croatia and what can public bodies do to be even stronger, what are the challenges in the video game industry in Croatia, will we get a new Nanobit soon - are some of the questions Andrej Kovačević, director of Exordium Games, will try to answer. who will also take on the role of moderator, Aleksandar Gavrilović, secretary of CGDA and director of domestic studio Gamechuck, Ante Vrdelja, head of business development who currently works for the Canadian Big Blue Bubble and Chris Marcich, director of HAVC. The panel starts at 11 a.m.

Immediately after the gaming industry, the program continues at 11.45 am with the presentation of Ozana Ramljak, head of two undergraduate professional studies; film and television directing and production and transmedia dramaturgy at VERN University. Ozana will present a different approach to university education in the fields of film, television and multimedia.

At 12.05 am, the presentation of the film, which is this year's Croatian candidate for the Oscar - Teresa37, will follow. The presentation will be attended by director Danilo Šerbedžija and producer Irena Marković. The moderator will be Boris T. Matić, director of the Zagreb Film Festival.

The conference continues after a short break and from 1.30 pm there is talk of another genre winner of the pandemic - a documentary. “Boom of Documentaries” is the name of the panel that will dissect the thesis that the highest ratings in the last year and a half have been recorded in the documentary film genre. The interlocutors on this topic will be Nenad Puhovski, director of ZagrebDox, director Katarina Zrinka Matijević, film editor at HRT Branka Papić and moderator Sanja Borčić from Zagreb film.

At 2 pm, another important panel is scheduled, in which the topic of conversation will be Murina. This debut work by director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović was awarded the prestigious Golden Camera (Camera d'Or) award at the Cannes Film Festival, and the film's producer Danijel Pek and the moderator Tanja Blažević from HAVC will speak with the director.

The DUART Platform is the first digital platform for film professionals in the region and will be presented in a half-hour lecture by the company's CEO Sanja Drakulić. The presentation of the platform starts at 2:45 p.m.

Due to the pandemic, it is also a great challenge to organize film festivals with a prescribed spacing and numerous other epidemiological measures. This is exactly what the organizers and representatives of some of the largest film festivals in Croatia (Pula Film Festival, Motovun Film Festival, ZagrebDox and Animafest) will talk about, who will tell their experiences from 2021 in a 45-minute panel. The panel starts at 3.15 p.m.

Location Manager Guild Intl. (LMGI) at 4 pm will begin a panel on the challenges of finding locations in the 21st century, and more will be said by location managers with years of experience working on large and world-renowned projects. The moderator is the president of LMGI, John Rakich, and Tomislav Peleski, the location manager who is a member of the association, also participates in the discussion.

At 4.45 pm, another presentation of the educational association will follow; Center for Film and Television Design Production, and will be presented by the famous costume designer Željka Franulović.

A well-known producer with more than 50 projects in his career comes to the virtual studio at 5 pm, some of which have been awarded many times - Todd Hariss. He is best known for the films The Kids Are All Right, which won a Golden Globe and The Trial of the Chicago 7, which was nominated for an Oscar, along with many other titles filmed around the world.

The conference will end with the presentation of one of the most important projects in 2021 - Kino Magistrala. "Kino Magistrala od Rijeke do Dubrovnika" as a partnership project of Kina Mediteran, Art-kina in Rijeka, Kinoteka Zlatna vrata in Split and Kinematografa Dubrovnik, is one of 15 projects selected for funding by the Europa Cinemas network and Creative Europe, a MEDIA subprogram. The presentation starts at 5.45 pm, led by project coordinator Alen Munitić.

The official part of the conference ends at 6 pm, and all registered participants will have the opportunity to watch the Croatian Oscar nominee, a film directed by Danilo Šerbedžija, Tereza37, from 8 pm.