Almost 5,000 More Visitors Than Last Year at Pula Film Festival
The 72nd edition of Pula Film Festival ran from 10 to 17 July 2025, and this year’s edition was marked by an increase in the number of visitors by almost 5,000, as well as a significant increase in the audience numbers and the number of participants of Pula PRO Industry Programme
At the 72nd edition of Pula Film Festival, 68 films were screened across four different locations – the Arena, Istrian National Theatre, Valli Cinema, and Ambrela Beach, with a total number of audience 30,174.
The Arena saw the biggest audiences – 22,408 (most evenings at the Arena had two films screenings, requiring a single ticket), followed by the Istrian National Theatre – 3,321 (including the audience from the award ceremony) and Valli Cinema – 3,510, and Ambrela with 935 visitors. By comparison, last year 70 films were screened across our different locations, with a total o 25,318 audience.
Pula PRO, the programme aimed at film professionals, also saw an increase in the number of participants. In line with the development and growth of this year’s edition of the programme, the number of visitors, participants, and students increased by 50%.
AFTER PULA – PULA TRAVELS
Right after Pula Film Festival, two domestic films, that had their world premieres at the Arena, went into cinema distribution. These are the children’s film Bumblebee’s Summer, directed by Daniel Kušan, and the film South Wind, directed by Ante Marin. The former won the Golden Gate of Pula Audience Awards with the score of 4,864, while the latter received a score of 4,402.
Both are screened under the aegis Pula Travels, a project that Pula Film Festival initiated last year with the goal of additionally motivating cinema exhibitors to include Croatian films screened at the Festival into their programmes, and to contribute to the visibility and viewer numbers of domestic cinema through joint promotional activities. Along with the two films mentioned above, a number of films we have seen in the Main Programme at Pula Film Festival (Croatian Film and Croatian Minority Co-production) will be screened at 30 locations across Croatia – at summer stages and cinemas – from Čakovec to Dubrovnik, as part of Pula Travels.
CRITICS’ SCORES FOR CROATIAN FILM, CROATIAN MINORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS, AND REGIONAL PROGRAMME
During Pula Film Festival, film critics and journalists scored the films screened in the Main Programme and the new Regional Programme. Attached is a table with the cores, and the High Noon critics’ duels are available on the Festival’s YouTube channel here.
YOU’VE MISSED IT, WATCH IT
The Festival’s YouTube channel includes short videos on the key programmes and participants of the Festival, entire music performances from the opening, recordings of exciting critics’ duels, as well as films made by the youngest participants of the Pulica Programme. You can watch all of this HERE.
Written reports by days, as well as all photographs from the Festival are available HERE.
We are signing the 72nd edition of the Festival with a big thank you to the audience, associates, media, and partners, and we recommend you watch the hilarious short film made by the youngest filmmakers within the Pulica Programme who have shown how they see Pula Film Festival.
