Zagreb's valuable film library is kept in this state-of-the-art archive that was built with the help of Kodak and is currently supervised by Ibrahim Hromalic.

Progress Made
Even in his short few months Demonja has had a significant impact. He has a unique background which is a mix of art history and distribution. His first move was to license the beloved Professor Balthazar cartoons to Croatian Airlines. The Professor is to the Balkan region what Bugs Bunny is to the U.S. Everyone in the region knows and loves the character. Again capitalizing on Zagreb's amazing library of films, his next move was to strike a deal with Issa Film & Video, a regional distributor (Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia) that also handles Warner Bros. products. "Now Professor Balthazar will be on the same shelf as Scooby Doo and available in the markets that he is best known," Demonja explains. Internally, he has started a marketing and promotions department and, while the company began to delve into CG two years ago, a new media department has been added which is charged with adding Flash to the company's repertoire. Zagreb Film has long worked on everything from artistic shorts, to advertisements, to service work, but now it is a goal of Demonja's to make sure they can take on projects in all of these areas using a number of different animation tools. "We are revitalizing our staff," Demonja goes on to say, "We will be making a number of changes in the coming months." Demonja is focused on bringing in new, young, educated and creative staff members that can match his energy.

The famous Zagreb Film building. The gabled windows at the top feed light to the animation staff.

Over the course of our tour, Damir outlined his plan for Zagreb Film's rebirth: "I have to increase production, keep up good, strong relations with the Ministry of Culture, international festivals, ASIFA and international companies, and find new ways of revenue growth by concentrating on new media, new animators and new ideas." To these ends Demonja is hitting the international markets to establish connections to not only get involved in co-productions but also to license the library and increase Zagreb Film's profile. To begin to build business, Demonja attended the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California in February, then went to Budapest's DISCOP in June. Of course, MIPTV and MIPCOM are on his schedule as well as a special trip to this month's Hiroshima Animation Festival. "I am very honored to be screening our work at Hiroshima," says Demonja. "I was very surprised and happy when Sayoko Kinoshita, the festival director, contacted me." At the festival eleven animated films were screened as well as a presentation by Demonja about the animated films which were shown, their authors, the Zagreb School of Animated Films' history and the studio's new direction. Over one thousand people attended and he was even interviewed by the Japanese press, including NHK!

A Platform to Build From
Zagreb Films owns a massive library that includes its shorts and series but also the educational films of Filmoteka 16. Assumed in 1996, these educational, government sponsored films from the former Yugoslavia, are distributed to Croatian speaking populations around the globe. "Sure, Canada, Australia -- Croatians are spread far and wide," Demonja replies when I ask him about the demand for such product. The archive is kept in one of Zagreb Film's two buildings in the center of the city. In addition to the archive, this "newer" building, houses the administrative offices, animation school, editing bays and production facilities, while the older, larger building is Zagreb Film's complete production facility complete with cameras and screening rooms. In this older building is where history was made.