“Eurimages support was crucial for the making of The Diary of Diana B., as was the support from the film centres of Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia, which was how we became eligible to apply to Eurimages funds in the first place. Eurimages has a strong commitment to encouraging gender equality in the film industry, so, in my view, the Gold Album is a step in the direction of greater visibility of female directors on the European film scene. It is definitely an honour to be in the company of these amazing female colleagues and an encouragement to get to work on my new project. I would especially like to thank Sanja Ravlić, the former Chair of the Eurimages Gender Equality Working Group, who also insisted on the implementation of good practices in the activities the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, which has had a meaningful impact on a strong female presence in Croatian film today,” said on the occasion Dana Budisavljević.        

The documentary-fiction feature, The Diary of Diana B., received the support of the European co-production fund, Eurimages, awarded by its Board of Management, at the 147th meeting held in Bratislava in 2017.  

Dana Budisavljević’s film is one of the 50 titles by female directors included in the first edition of the cultural support fund Eurimages’ Gold Album. As stated in the publication, over the last 20 years, Eurimages has supported 300 films by female directors. Among the 50 female film authors, Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska is also featured in the publication. Her fiction feature God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunija, created as a Croatian minority co-production (Croatian co-producer is Zdenka Gold of Spiritus Movens), last year won the prestigious LUX Film Prize, awarded by the European Parliament.

The films presented in the “Gold Album – Female Directors” represent the diversity of female talent across Eurimages’ Member States. They bear witness to the Fund’s commitment to encouraging co-operation and cultural diversity across national boundaries. Increasing the visibility of female directors is vital for the promotion of gender equality in the film industry and it is one of the goals of the Fund’s Gender Equality Strategy. The text of the Eurimages’ Gender Equality Strategy (2018 – 2020), under the title “Aiming for 50/50 by 2020,” is available here. 

Sanja Ravlić, the former Chair of the Eurimages Gender Equality Working Group, also participated in the selection process of the films in the publication, which you can read or download HERE. From 2009 to 2016, Ravlić was Croatia’s representative on the Board of Management of Eurimages.

“The “Gold Album” publication is a great example of Eurimages’ pioneer work in the field of gender equality in European film. The initiative began in 2013, with the founding of the Gender Equality Working Group, of which Croatia was a member since the very beginning. The aim of the Gold Album is to present to the audience the diversity and richness of female talent, of which Dana Budisavljević and her film The Diary of Diana B. is an excellent example,” said Ravlić.   

The Diary of Diana B. was produced by Hulahop from Zagreb, in collaboration with producers from Slovenia and Serbia, December and This and That Productions, while Hulahop also acts as the film’s distributor. Since premiering at the Pula Film Festival in 2019, where it won six awards, the film has screened at a string of international festivals, while its Croatian theatrical distribution brought 26,642 viewers to cinemas around the country, making it the fifth most-watched film of 2019.

Director Dana Budisavljević has also received the annual Vladimir Nazor Award for Film Art. Recently she has also received the Krunoslav Sukić Award for promoting peace, nonviolence and human rights, awarded by the Centre for Peace, Non-violence and Human Rights in Osijek, Croatia.   

“By choosing the visual art of film as a way of communicating her peace commitment, Dana Budisavljević shows us what is peaceful and what is not; the film bears witness to the strength of one, or each, person and breaks down the prejudices of power, supremacy, force and violence. Dane Budisavljević’s work is inseparable from the way she communicates her work and lives her life, inseparable from the mission of a dedicated, talented person, that benefits everyone, including those who are not visible in such work,” said the Krunoslav Sukić Award statement.  

Cover photograph: Dana Budisavljević