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 collaboration with film academies from the region, the program offers five-day festival attendance grants to two students from each of the academies.

In the collaboration between the Industry Program of Zagreb Film Festival and six academies from the region – Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana, Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje, and Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje – 12 students with their 6 projects have been chosen to participate in the Industry Educational Program, which is open to public, and develop their short fiction films in preparatory workshops. The first workshop will deal with financial, i.e. co-production possibilities of projects and will be led by the French producer Stéphane Guénin from the French school ENS Louis-Lumière. The second one will focus on the project presentation (pitching) under the guidance of James Watkins, who wrote projects for Warner Bros, Working Title, Pathé, Film Four and BBC Films.

Participants and projects:

Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb: Nikica Zdunić, Tajana Bakota (Planet)
Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo: Sara Ristić (no project), Ajla Medanhodžić (Afterlife)
Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana: Matic Štamcar, Špela Bajc (A Moment)
Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade: Lana Pavkov, Miloš Vučković (19 Šafarikova Street)
Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje: Zvonimir Grujić (Sunset), Jelena Šoškić (no project)
Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje: Ibrahim Batuhan, Dragan Spasov (Face-off)

You will find more about the projects at Industry Youth Pitching Forum page.