ost World War II, the Czechs, Americans and Canadians pioneered avant-garde animation, breaking from the Disney style. In 1957/58 a surprising new contribution to this trend came from Zagreb - an inventive approach to animation, design and subject matter. A performance of seven Zagreb film animations at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958 achieved surprising success, and the French critics, George Sadoul and Andre Martin coined the name "Zagreb School of Animation".

Croatian Animation before Zagreb Film

Zagreb possesses a long tradition in fine arts related to animation including illustration, caricature, comic books, graphic design. So, it is not surprising that the first attempts in film animation were made in the 1920s, mainly in advertising and education. However, it was not until 1950 that a group of caricaturists, from a satirical weekly entitled Kerempuh, started working on the first independent animated film in Croatia/Yugoslavia. The group included Walter Neugebauer, Borivoj Dovnikovic - Bordo, Vladimir Delac and Ico Voljevica.

A year later, a 20 minute film called Veliki Miting/The Great Rally had been produced. Based on that success, the government founded a specialised animation company Duga Film. The Kerempuh group gathered and trained new animators and specialists. They then produced five new black and white animated films. This was the start of a continued professional production of animated film in Croatia/Yugoslavia. Many important authors of Croatian and world animation began their career at Duga Film.

However, the Government closed down Duga Film in 1952 during an economic crisis - animation was considered a luxury.

There were several attempts to continue the production of animated films by companies such as Zora Film and Studio Interpublic. In 1954, Dusan Vukotic and Nikola Kostelac assembled some fellow workers from Duga Film to produced 15 short, colour, animated commercials. These films were very important for the further development of Zagreb animation, because they were based on exploring new paths in animation, which became the fundamental value of the future Zagreb School of Animation.

Zagreb Film's Studio for Animated Film

In 1956 the leadership of Zagreb Film and the Vukotic-Kostelac group founded the Studio for Animated Film. Soon the Neugebauer group from Interpublic joined them. That moment marked the unstoppable rise of animation production at the Zagreb address Vlaska 70.

The new studio started gathering not only old personnel but new members as well such as Vatroslav Mimica, Nedeljko Dragic, Zlatko Bourek, Josko Marusic and others.

The production of independent animated films erupted. The late fifties and early sixties were characterised by huge international success of the Zagreb School of Animated Film. During these years, Zagreb School of Animation won a large number of domestic and international awards. Among the many prizes won by Zagreb Film was 1962 Vukotic's American Academy Award for the animated film Surogat/The Ersatz becoming the first non-American Oscar winner. Oscar nominations were also given to Dragic's film Tup-Tup and Grgic's - with the British Bob Godfrey - for their film Lutka Snova/Dream Doll.

Despite animators individual style, many people involved in the world of animation claim that animated films from the Zagreb School could be recognized by seeing only one sequence.

In 2000, the Italian critic and publicist Giannalberto Bendazzi, a noted specialist in animation, made a list of 88 greatest animated films in the history of world animation. The list included 8 films from the Zagreb school.

Zagreb Film has also produced four animated series: Hound for Hire, Inspector Mask, Professor Balthazar and The Little Flying Bears. The latter two enjoyed great success on TV screens around the world.

Furthermore, The Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films is considered one of the greatest animations festivals in the world.

Independent Croatia

In early 1990s, Zagreb film, along with the rest of the film industry, found itself caught up with the kind of political and economic turmoil occurring in all the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

With the help of the Republic of Croatia and the City of Zagreb, the fifty-year-old tradition of animation is continuing. Members of the new generation have gained international recognition. Such new talent promise a successful revitalisation of the Zagreb School of Animation. The Animation Study, established within Zagreb Academy of Fine Art four years ago, will give it's share to this goal too.

Borivoj Dovnikovic - Bordo