ZAGREB: Acclaimed Croatian director, screenwriter and professor Zrinko Ogresta passed away at age 68.
Zrinko Ogresta graduated in 1982 from the Academy of Theatre, Film and Television the Department of Film and Television Direction, today the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. His debut feature Fragments / Krhotine (1991), was nominated for the Felix Awards, today the European Film Awards, in the category of young European film. The film also received the Golden Arena for screenplay at the Pula Film Festival.
His filmography also includes feature films Washed Out / Isprani (1995), which premiered in the main competition at KVIFF; Red Dust / Crvena prašina (1999), which premiered in the official programme (out of competition) of the 56th Venice International Film Festival, and won Golden Arenas for Best Film, Screenplay and Best Actor, as well as the Golden Gate of Pula Audience Award at the Pula Film Festival; Here /Tu (2003), winner of the Special Jury Prize at KVIFF, the Grand Golden Arena in Pula and the Vladimir Nazor Award for Filmmaking, as well as the Tolerance Award at European Film Festival Palić; Behind the Glass / Iza stakla (2008), which screened in the competition at Karlovy Vary and Cairo, and won the Audience Award in Motovun (today Cinehill Film Festival); Projections / Projekcije (2013); On the Other Side / S one strane (2016), winner of the Special Jury Award in Berlinale’s Panorama as well as several awards at the Pula FF before being selected as Croatia’s bid at the Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category.
His last film, A Blue Flower / Plavi cvijet (2021), premiered at the Moscow IFF, where it won the Audience Award, and later received the Grand Golden Arena, the Golden Arena for directing, and the International Critics’ Award at the Pula FF.
Ogresta also made documentary and special film projects and TV content, including works during the Homeland War, as well as the special film Croatia – The Mediterranean as It Once Was (2006), produced by the Croatian National Board of Tourism, which won the first prize at the Golden City Gate in Berlin.
From 1990 until his retirement in 2024, he taught at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, as a full professor of film directing. He received his doctorate in arts from the University of Zagreb in 2017, and in 2025 he was elected professor emeritus.
He received the “Vladimir Nazor” Award for Lifetime Achievement (2024). He was decorated with the Order of the Croatian Dawn with the image of Marko Marulić, and was a member of the European Film Academy, according to an obituary from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.
A Blue Flower, and On the Other Side were produced by Croatia’s Interfilm and Serbia’s Zillion film in coproduction with the Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT). Projections was produced by Interfilm. Washed Out was produced by Jadran Film in coproduction with HRT. Red Dust, Here, and Behind the Glass were produced by Interfilm in coproduction with HRT.
