22. ZagrebDox Film Festival Returns in Style: 19 to 26 April in the Kaptol Boutique Cinema

This year’s edition of the ZagrebDox international documentary film festival will present more than one hundred screenings selected from over two thousand global submissions, including feature, mid-length, and short documentaries, across sixteen curated programs. Alongside the screenings, our audience will experience a broad selection of accompanying events, including Foto Dox, Audio Dox, DoXXL, masterclasses, and the authorial ZagrebDox Pro: Slow Pitch program.

Following last year’s Grand Prize in the International Competition for Mr. Nobody Against Putin, director David Borenstein has confirmed his participation as a member of our International Jury. Joining him is Christian Frei, the acclaimed Swiss filmmaker whose work has inspired audiences and emerging filmmakers for over two decades. This year, Frei will receive the festival’s Honorary Seal, awarded by ZagrebDox founder and artistic director Nenad Puhovski. As part of a retrospective of Frei’s work, audiences will watch War Photographer, Space Tourists, Genesis 2.0, Sleepless in New York, and Blame, films that encompass themes ranging from political activism to intimate documentary storytelling.

Frei’s stay in Zagreb aligns with the introduction of our new program sections. The director of War Photographer will attend the inaguration of Foto Dox, an addition to the festival’s side program. Curated by Sandra Vitaljić, Foto Dox explores the medium of documentary photography as an independent documentary form.

Alongside Borenstein and Frei, the International Jury includes Oliver Sertić, a producer and festival programmer with extensive experience in international documentary cinema. The Regional Jury features director and screenwriter Dalija Dozet, DOC NYC curator and programmer Murtada Elfadl, and director Clara Trischler. The Young and Short Jury will include filmmaker and short-form producer Jamillah van der Hulst, emerging Croatian director Jozo Schmuch, and Ukrainian documentarian Oleksii Yeroshenko, while The Movies That Matter Jury will comprise documentarian Ondrej Kamenicky and directors Maja Prettner, and Lidija Zelović. The FIPRESCI Jury includes film critics Petra Belc, Isabel Jacobs, and Ana Stanić.

Equally notable names can be found in the Slow Pitch program, a special ZagrebDox Pro format that combines creative development and expert mentorship, enabling filmmakers to refine their projects and strengthen their international potential. This year, the program is led by renowned producers Lucie Kon and Vanja Jambrović. Kon, an award-winning producer and executive editor, has received both Emmy and BAFTA awards and brings extensive international experience, including her work on Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Jambrović, a Croatian producer, has earned numerous international accolades, including the award for Best European Documentary at the European Film Awards for Fiume o morte! In addition to Kon and Jambrović, projects will be mentored by celebrated British filmmaker Marc Isaacs, a longstanding friend of our festival, and Cecilia Lidin, an independent consultant, moderator, programmer, and professor at the National Film School of Denmark.

The 22nd edition of ZagrebDox is not only a showcase of today’s most compelling documentary films but a continuation of the festival’s status of a place where we recognize talent before it achieves global acclaim, and where documentary cinema remains a powerful tool for understanding our world. ZagrebDox is supported by the City of Zagreb, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the Croatian Film Directors’ Guild, and the Zagreb Tourist Board.