During the eight days of the INDUSTRY program, ZFF’s educational and networking platform for professionals, there will be a number of interesting lectures, panels, and workshops focusing on one of three topics pervading this year’s edition: video game development, TV storytelling and original film score as an important part of film dramaturgy.

The permanent focus of Industry on the potential and possible directions of video game development will reach its climax through the program Interactive Empathy comprised of three masterclass lectures of international gaming experts and the joint panel titled Is it possible to develop an art hit game?. The masterclass The Making of Trüberbrook will deal with the development of the successful German adventure detective sci-fi game, while the masterclass Narrative Design for Video Games by French expert Emmanuel Corno will discuss the tools needed for young game designers to develop convincing stories in video games, but also the idea of a video game as political criticism. The program Interactive Empathy is a joint project of Goethe-Institute and the French Institute, and its aim is to raise awareness about the importance of citizenship via video game development.

In order to enable domestic professionals to be more successful in the international market, this year, in cooperation with CED – MEDIA Office Croatia and CED – MEDIA Office Serbia we are organising a three-day workshop for professionals dedicated to the development of TV series. The workshop will be held by Hayle McKenzie and Kay Stonham, experts from the company Script Angel, with extensive experience in the development of feature and TV scripts. Hayley McKenzie will also hold a lecture focusing on the functioning of “the story making engine” and the development of exceptional TV shows – currently the most exciting creative segment in global TV production.

Years of continuous work on the development of Industry have led to permanent programs such as the creative workshop for children My First Video Game (in collaboration with HUB385) or the workshop My First Script (in collaboration with the Croatian Film Director’s Guild), where some of the films shown at ZFF were also developed. Those are The Frog by Elmir Jukić (15th ZFF) and The Load by Ognjen Glavonić which premiered at the program Directors’ Fortnight Section in Cannes and won the Golden Pram at the 16th ZFF. Among them is the film which marked this year, The Diary of Diana B. by Dana Budisavljević. Again, this year’s Pitching Forum Industry Youth! in collaboration with 7 regional academies of dramatic arts will see 14 students develop and pitch their projects, and the best will win valuable rewards from our partners, studio Vizije and Šesnić&Turković. The program Industry aims to encourage the interested public to write, shoot, direct, produce and distribute their films, and we will also present the educational platform of script and project development – MIDPOINT, aimed at creative teams comprised of screenwriters, directors and producers from Central and Eastern Europe.

To finish of the program, we have a film score panel, Who’s Playin’ Over There?, an event dedicated to an extremely interesting question of original scores as an element of dramaturgy and its role in the film’s atmosphere and character development. We will talk to well-known Croatian film composers – Jura Ferina, Pavle Miholjević, Alen Sinkauz, Nenad Sinkauz and Hrvoje Štefotić.

For all those unable to attend big film manifestations around the world, the program Festivals in the Spotlight will once again bring the film greats to Zagreb audiences, which will be able to enjoy parts of programs of the Locarno Film Festival, the Mediterranean Film Festival Split, the Sarajevo Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival and the Sofia International Film Festival, with one film from our Mediterranean film network, Kino Mediteran.