The Industry section, albeit richer than ever in terms of content and events, remains conceptually true to its origins, highlighting the ideas it is based on. From the very beginning, Zagreb Film Festival has been focusing in terms of program on the presentation and promotion of debut films and up-and-coming filmmakers, and the national Checkers competition has been gathering and presenting, year after year, new names emerging on the local film scene.

Young professionals have long been in the focus of the Industry section, lending it the name Industry Youth!. Today’s training programs are focused on more mature film professionals, united under the umbrella name of Industry, however we also launched a separate program of student grants called Industry Youth!, in association with film academies from the region, to make it possible for students to attend the festival.

Industry Youth! thus supports several students from each of the partnering academies, who are to come to Zagreb between 13 and 18 November to attend our festival. Collaboration has been agreed with the Belgrade Faculty of Drama Art, Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje Faculty of Drama Art and Sarajevo Film Academy. The students arriving to Zagreb this year are Žan Žveplan, Vidan Miljković, Nađa Lapčević, Čarna Vučinić, Sara Klimoska, Andrej Georgiev, Šejla Lajlani, Michael Szekelyhidi.