AUDIOVISUAL WORKS AND AUDIO RECORDINGS, 2025

Production of films in the Republic of Croatia

Since 2024, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics has extracted data on film producers from the administrative database of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, while data on television broadcasters are obtained separately via the TV-1 form. In 2025, there were 75 film producers in the Republic of Croatia, who produced a total of 126 films, whereas three television broadcasters produced 49 films. Film producers produced a total of 17 feature-length and 24 short live-action films, 26 feature-length, 16 medium-length and 51 short documentaries, 24 animated films, 11 experimental and six commercial films. As regards the type of films, documentaries were the most produced, accounting for 53% of the total production.

Audiovisual works in circulation in 2025

In 2025, six distributors started the circulation of 1 120 audiovisual works. By length, 83% of them refer to feature-length audiovisual works, while, according to the country of origin, most audiovisual works originated from the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom. By type of commercial exploitation, majority of them were intended for renting, while by type of screenings, they were predominantly related to videos on demand.

Video game industry in Croatia

As part of collecting data on audiovisual works, in addition to extracting data on film production and distribution, cooperation with the Croatian Game Development Alliance has begun this year to obtain a set of data on video game production in Croatia. Video game production, as a branch of the cultural industry that is gaining increasing importance worldwide, employs a total of 660 persons in 271 business units in Croatia. These are mostly companies and crafts, as well as ten associations and art organisations. In 2025, there were 189 PC/console games and 27 mobile games made by Croatian video game producers on the market. Observed by genre, action and adventure games are dominant, accounting for 67% of all PC games on the market.

Audio recordings in 2025

In 2025, there were 5 272 audio recordings with a circulation of 80 355 copies by 78 publishers. By recording media, the highest number of audio recordings was released on CDs (3 563), followed by 1 088 digital releases, 327 boxed sets and 294 LPs. Concerning the recording media, a growing trend was spotted of recordings on somewhat more traditional media such as CDs and boxed sets. By type of music recorded on LPs, rock and pop music had the greatest share. Out of a total of 146 electronic music recordings distributed, 13% of them were distributed on LPs, whereas 12% of a total of 1 113 rock recordings were distributed on LPs.

By type of music materials, 49% of materials released in 2025 was pop music, 21% was rock music, whereas other types of music accounted for a smaller percentage.

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

Sources and methods of data collection

The data are the result of processing the administrative database of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and the administrative database of the Croatian Game Development Alliance (CGDA), as well as annual reports filled in by television broadcasters (TV-1 form), companies engaged in the distribution of films (NKL-P and KINO-5 forms), companies engaged in the circulation of audiovisual works (NKL 5/1 form) and companies engaged in the production of sound recordings (NKL 5/2 form).The methodology is harmonised with the following legislation: the Copyright and Related Rights Act (NN, No. 111/21), the Audiovisual Activities Act (NN, Nos 61/18, 114/22 and 123/24) and the Ordinance on the Categorisation of Audiovisual Works (NN, No. 40/21).

Coverage and comparability

The statistical survey encompasses business entities engaged in the production and circulation of films as well as distributors. Data are comparable to those released in previous years.

Definitions and explanations

A copyright work is an original intellectual creation in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, having an individual character, irrespective of the manner and form of its expression, its type, value or purpose.

Copyright means the rights of authors in respect of their works in the literary, scientific and artistic domains. Concerning the content, copyright includes moral, economic, and other rights of authors. Authors’ property rights include the right of reproduction, the right of distribution (the right to put into circulation), the right of communication of a copyright work to the public, and the right of alteration. Authors have the exclusive right to do with their copyright work and the benefits deriving from it whatever they like, and to exclude any other person from it.

Audiovisual activities include the development, production, advertising, distribution and showing of audiovisual works.

Audiovisual works are feature and documentary films, animated films, alternative films, experimental films, and all other audiovisual works that are artistic and/or author’s expression irrespective of the technology used to make them, medium they are fixed on, and the way they are presented.

Film categories are live-action films, documentary films, animated films, commercial films and experimental films.

Audiovisual works are considered co-authored works. The principal director is the main co-author of an audiovisual work. Other co-authors of an audiovisual work are the author of a screenplay, the principal cameraman, the principal image and sound editor and the composer of music specifically created for use in such work. If a drawing or animation represents an essential element of an audiovisual work, the principal drawer or the principal animator shall be considered a co-author of that work.

A producer of an audiovisual work is a self-employed natural person/trade owner or legal person who initiates the process of production of an audiovisual work and completely supervises its production, raises the funds in their own name, organises the production or takes responsibility for the overall financial operation and quality of the work and together with the director and team of authors participates in the process of creating audiovisual work, its promotion and marketing at film festivals and its exploitation.

Feature film (feature-length film) is a film category whose duration meets the traditional standard unit screening time of a cinema programme (2 hours). The length of a feature film can vary from a minimum of 60 minutes to, exceptionally, three hours or more. It is categorically distinguished from short and medium-length films.

Medium-length film is a film category that lasts longer than a short film and shorter than a feature film. It is arbitrarily determined that the lower limit of a medium-length film is 30 minutes and the upper limit is one hour. This length is particularly established by television programme with its time standards, e.g. for television dramas and documentaries.

Short film is a film category that lasts much shorter than the standard length of a feature film. Their arbitrary upper limit is 30 minutes. The category includes a wide range of lengths, from 15- to 20-second commercials to longer documentaries, animated and live-action films.

Subject matter of protection of the rights of audiovisual producers is a videogram, as a fixation of an audiovisual work, as well as of a sequence of moving images accompanied by sound or without sound.

Distributor is a natural person or a legal entity that is engaged in the distribution of audiovisual works, registered as a distributor of audiovisual works and registered in the distributors’ records kept by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

Home use is handing over or sale of a videogram to business entities registered for renting videograms to citizens or the sale of videograms for their personal use.

Video games are applied computer programs for entertainment. As a rule, they are interactive games for personal computers, specialised computers (so-called game consoles) and portable game consoles, as well as for handheld computers, mobile phones, etc., and there are also specially designed coin-operated or token-operated gaming machines (so-called arcade machines), intended for entertainment cenetres and other public places. Computer games can be played by one or more players (on a single computer or, more often, on multiple networked computers).

Video games are usually classified into several genres, but without strict boundaries between them: adventure, action, horror, educational, platformer, simulation, first-person shooter (FPS), third-person shooter (TPS), role-playing game (RPG), real-time strategy (RTS), turn-based strategy (TBS), etc.

A phonogram (audio recording) is the fixation of the sounds of a performance or of other sounds or of representations of sounds, other than in the form of fixations embedded in an audiovisual work. Fixation means embedding sounds, or the representations thereof, in a medium from which they can be listened, reproduced or communicated through a device. A phonogram can be fixated to various media, e.g. CD, DVD, LP, or in a form of a digital medium etc. A phonogram is a subject matter of protection of the rights of a phonogram producer. The rights in a phonogram are not in any way limited by its embedding in a videogram.

A phonogram producer is a natural or a legal person, who or which takes the initiative and has the responsibility for the first fixation of sounds of a performance or of other sounds or of representations of sounds. It is considered that the phonogram producer is the one whose name or company name is regularly indicated as the holder of the rights of the phonogram producer on the phonogram, until proven otherwise.

Abbreviations
CD	compact disc
DVD	digital video disc
LP	long play record
PC	Personal computer
USA	United States of America
VHS	video home system
VOD	video on demand
Symbols
-	no occurrence
:	occurrence is not possible

 

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Persons responsible:
Mario Vlajčević, Director of Demographic and Social Statistics Directorate
Lidija Brković, Director General

Prepared by:
Marija Gojević, Gordana Bralić and Maja Lončar

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