April 15, 2023 – Global Production Awards 2023 is a prestigious awards ceremony organized by Screen International magazine and the British consulting firm Olsberg SPI. Screen Intl. is one of the three professional publications with the largest distribution worldwide, and it was their jury that recognized the city of Zagreb as the most desirable newly discovered and fast-growing location for filming.
As Poslovni writes, after a highly successful year in the Croatian capital with all kinds of audiovisual works, another confirmation of success has arrived. The city of Zagreb, despite numerous applications, was chosen in the ‘Emerging location’ category of the Global Production Award 2023, and its competitors include:
· Film AlUla (Saudi Arabia)
· Film Friendly Samaná (Dominican Republic Film Commission – DGCINE)
· Film in Limerick (Ireland)
· New Mexico Film Office (US)
“We are very proud that Zagreb was selected from the many applications, along with only five other locations worldwide! This is already a great success for us; we look forward to the announcement of the winner during the Cannes Film Festival in May and secretly hope for victory. We also send a big thank you to the Croatian producers with whom we have excellent cooperation in the promotion of Zagreb and who have greatly helped us put Zagreb on the film map of the world again,” said Mia Pećina Drašković, head of the Zagreb Film Office.
Film stars in Croatia
The year 2022 was in terms of the number of days of filming (573 days in total) in Zagreb at the level of the years before the pandemic, but what marked ’22. is the filming of the Hollywood film ‘Canary Black’, which will be extremely important for the promotion of Zagreb. The city plays itself for the first time throughout the film and is one of the story’s most important ‘characters’. In addition to ‘Canary Black’, the second season of the series ‘Hotel Portofino’, as well as numerous commercials for well-known companies such as Samsung, Zalando and PlayStation, were filmed.
It is important to emphasize that Zagreb and Zagreb County have risen in the ranking of the most desirable cities for filming in Croatia in the past few years, jumping from fourth to second place, right behind Split-Dalmatia County (HAVC / Filming in Croatia data).
All of the above has resulted in Zagreb being on the world list of newly discovered locations for filming, and we will find out whether it will beat the competition at the final award ceremony during one of the biggest film festivals in the world, the Cannes Film Festival, on May 22, 2023!
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