In his article Holdsworth writes that after almost 15 years Venice Film Festival will screen Ognjen Sviličić’s film These Are the Rules, while the festival in Locarno is presenting another two films, Andreja Štaka’s Cure – The Life of Another and Love Island by Jasmila Žbanić.

‘More than a dozen other Croatian films are destined for international festival slots during the fall as well’, says Holdsworth, mentioning that the upcoming Sarajevo Film festival will screen ten Croatian films, including Tanja Božić’s documentary Happily Ever After, which premiered in the official selection of the prestigious International Rotterdam Film festival earlier this year.

‘The festival lineup we have now is a result of new policies in funding, incentives and legal reforms we've introduced in recent years’, said Hrvoje Hribar, head of HAVC, for The Hollywood Reporter, adding that this autumn Croatian films are about the hit the festivals in Toronto, Montreal and Busan. ‘Our strategy was to fund international co-productions and attract foreign projects at the same time via incentive measures introduced early in 2012’, said Hribar.

The producer of the film These Are the Rules Damir Terešak said that the film industry, after almost two decades of decline, is recovering although ‘it still lacks the infrastructure and trained crews we had before the war, but international productions are shooting here again and that is helping develop the sector’.

‘The main thing that has contributed to growing interest from festivals is that there is now a more pluralistic funding approach by HAVC, which has wisely invested in minority co-productions that is helping widen the talent pool,’ said Mike Downey, British producer and member of the artistic board at the 61st Pula Film Festival.

Holdsworth also mentions that this year Croatia is hosting the filming of season three of the Borgia serial, BBC’s project Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, as well as season five of the popular Game of Thrones series.

The entire article is available on this link.