Croatian experimental films are showcased in two programs. One is dedicated to titles that appeared at the 25 FPS – International Festival of Experimental Film and Video, while the second programme consists of Croatian films screened at the Genre Film Festival, held biennially in Zagreb from 1963 to 1970.

The contemporary experimental programme, titled Alternations, has been put together by the producer and selector of the festival 25 FPS, Marina Kožul, seeking “to establish cognitive threads between the personal and collective, abstract and figurative, emotional and dry” in the works of visual artists who express themselves in essayist format (Dalija Dozet, Davor Sanvincenti), in the form of diary entries or media hybrids (Mateja Zidarić, Leona Kadijević), or take a concept as their starting point (Tomislav Šoban, Marko Tadić, Vladislav Knežević). In doing so, they explore the terrain between film and other arts and sciences and open up new spaces to challenge our perceptions of the world, while providing a foundation for emotional reflection and interpretation.

The historical program  titled Legacy of Genre Film Festival and the Analogue Era, selected by the curator of the Croatian Film Association’s archive, Diana Nenadić, features Croatian participants of the GEFF, a key meeting place for “film researchers” in the 1960s – from creators of “anti-films” (Mihovil Pansini and Vladimir Petek), researchers of the visual and kinetic potential of film (Ante Verzotti), subscribers to meditative and “pure film” (Ivan Martinac), or pioneers of structural forms (Tomislav Gotovac), to the traditionalists among amateurs who, ridiculing their experimental colleagues, created the most radical GEFF works (Milan Šamec and Zlatko Hajdler). They were joined by two multimedia artists – Milan Stilinović and Ivan Ladislav Galeta, who cherished the exploratory spirit of the GEFF in the following decades of the analogue era. The same can be said for Ana Hušman, who continues to do so today, returning to the film tape and personal roots in the essay film I’d Rather Be a Stone (2024), which screened at the end of the main program of the festival in New Mexico.

The programme Alternations, dedicated to recent Croatian experimental films from the past decade, featured the following titles:

• How to Talk to Mom, Dalija Dozet, 2020, 11’, HR 
• The End, Tomislav Šoban, 2015, 10’, HR 
• Periphery, Leona Kadijević, 2017, 8’, HR 
• Places We'll Breathe, Davor Sanvincenti, 2022, 22’, HR 
• Moving Elements, Marko Tadić, 2016, 7’, HR 
• Pleiades, Mateja Zidarić, 2021, 12’, HR 
• Null Cone, Vladislav Knežević, 2022, 9’, HR

The following titles will appear in the programme titled Early Croatian Experiments: Legacy of Genre Film Festival and the Analogue Era:

• Scusa Signorina, Mihovil Pansini, 1963, 7’
• K3 or Clear Sky without Clouds, Mihovil Pansini, 1963, 2’50”
• Encounters, Vladimir Petek, 1963, 8’
• The Forenoon of a Faun, Tomislav Gotovac, 1963, 8’10”
• I'm Mad, Ivan Martinac, 1965, 5’
• Fluorescences, Ante Verzotti, 1967, 4’
• Termites, Milan Šamec, 1963, 2’
• Kariokinesis, Zlatko Hajdler, 1965, 2’
• Don’t Ask Where We’re Going, Tomislav Gotovac, 1966, 10’
• Write, No Solitude, Mladen Stilinović, 1973, 4’
• Water Pulu 1869-1896, Ivan Ladislav Galeta, 1987, 9’