Croatia's largest film festival runs a week in November with three international competitions for first and second films, a Croatian shorts competition and a full house of premieres. Dates, how the programme is built, and how to get tickets before the locals do.
Checked: 3 September 2026
The Zagreb Film Festival, ZFF to everyone in the city, holds its 24th edition from Monday 9 to Sunday 15 November 2026. It began in 2003 as a small festival of debut films and has become the largest international film event in Croatia, with around a hundred screenings in a week and a public that treats it as the cultural start of winter. The programme is built on competitions: three international ones for feature films, short films and documentaries, all limited to first or second works by their directors, and a Croatian competition for short films. Around them sit the non-competitive sections, retrospectives, a children's programme and the industry days.
Where it is shown
For most of its history the festival's home was Kino Europa on Varšavska, the 1925 cinema with the marble foyer, and the festival still centres on the lower town within a few tram stops of Ban Jelačić square. The exact list of cinemas changes with the year and is published with the programme on zff.hr; expect the main venue plus two or three smaller halls, all reachable on foot from the centre. The festival club, where the audience meets the directors after the last screening, is the part regulars would not miss.
How to do the week well
- Read the competition catalogue rather than the stars: the point of ZFF is seeing directors before they are famous, and past winners have gone on to Cannes and the Oscars.
- Buy a festival pass if you plan more than five films; single tickets are cheap but the good screenings go fast.
- The Croatian shorts competition is the fastest way into the local scene: ten films in ninety minutes, directors in the room.
- Combine it with Interliber, the book fair at the Zagreb Fair, which runs 10 to 15 November in the same week.
November in Zagreb is cold, often wet and, thanks to ZFF and the run-up to Advent, one of the liveliest months indoors. Hotels are at their cheapest of the year; book a room within walking distance of the lower town and let the trams do the rest.
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Frequently asked questions
- Are the films subtitled in English?
- Yes. International films are shown in the original language with Croatian and English subtitles, Croatian films with English subtitles. Q&A sessions with the directors are usually in English.
- How do I get tickets?
- Online through the festival site once the programme is out, usually in late October, or at the festival box office. Opening and closing nights and the best-known competition titles sell out; weekday afternoons never do.
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