Croatian Film Association is an association of non-professional film and video groups operating in Croatia since 1928. Founded in 1963 as the Croatian Cinema Association (and the Centre for Croatian amateur cinema before that), the Association works today as part of the Croatian Technical Culture Union.
Croatian Film Association assembles cinema and video clubs, film groups and individuals from primary school to adult members, encourages their work (providing financing, managing and expert help), contributes to education of mentors and members of film groups, organizes presentations and evaluation of film and video works by children and adult authors, at home and abroad, and works on preservation of best film and video works of non-professional cinema. Since 1992, the Association has been a member of the international organization of non-professional cinema (UNICA).
Under the Association’s patronage operate 162 film and video youth clubs and 33 associations with legal status, along with a great number of independent film and video authors.
The association works in the following ways:
organizes (or co-organizes) revues of film and video (Revue of Croatian film and video, Revue of Croatian youth film and video, International One Minute Movie Cup in Požega, International festival of new film and video in Split), and organizes or co-organizes film and video panels;
regularly organizes film and video workshops for documentary, feature and animated film, intended for members of film and video clubs, that is to say, teachers and moderators of school (children) film and video clubs;
encourages and offers expert help in realization of media education, especially in primary and high schools, and organizes the Media school;
provides practical expert and financial help to clubs and individuals with shooting and production of their film and video materials.
On the international level, the Association regularly participates at UNICA’s annual congresses and festivals, and organizes presentations of Croatian non-professional cinema and video art abroad.
Croatian Film Association has also been housing a film and video archive since 1974, including a collection of 580 film titles and 3.000 video works made in the period from 1928 to 1998. To preserve and protect the stock, the Association makes protective copies, and to make it more available, the stock is recorded on video tapes (U-matic, VHS, SVHS). Recently, part of the film stock (particularly materials intended for presentation of Croatian children film and video, and Croatian alternative film and video art) is being recorded both in BETA and NTSC formats.
The bulleting of the Croatian Film Association, Note, is published quarterly since 1993. In addition, the Association is co-publisher of the Croatian Cinema Chronicle, and the publisher of several monographs dedicated to non-professional cinema, and history and theory of film and new media