Zagreb Film company for the production of animated films was founded in 1953. The multitude of genres and different styles from that time made Georges Sadoul, a French theoretician, critic and film historian, to coin the name Zagreb School of Animated Film, which has become a trademark for quality and innovative films made in Zagreb. From 1990 to 1994, Zagreb Film was a social enterprise for production and distribution of films import-export. After that, until 1999, it operates as a joint-stock company and then as a limited liability company. From January to August 2007, Zagreb Film is a subsidiary of Zagreb Holding company. In August of that same year, it became a Culture Institution founded by the City of Zagreb. After 1991, Zagreb Film found itself in a period of great changes, characteristic for transition states in Eastern Europe, and then in the turmoil of war. The production of artistic animated films aims to continue the tradition today with the help of the Republic of Croatia and the City of Zagreb. Several members of the new generation of Zagreb animation have gained international affirmation, such as Danijel Šuljić, Nicole Hewitt, Magda Dulčić, Darko Bakliža, Stiv Šinik, Goran Trbuljak, Ivana Guljašević… Along with young creative forces from the Animation and New Media Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, they are a promise of a successful revitalization of the Zagreb School of Animated Film.

In 2010, the House of Croatian Film, owned by Zagreb Film, was opened as a joint cultural project of Zagreb Film and the City of Zagreb at 18 Nova Ves Street. Zagreb Film’s stop-motion animation studio was opened in 2014. In an operational and production sense, it is the only fully specialized studio for stop-motion animation in the region and it can sustain the production of several animated films at once.\r\n\r\nSo far, more than 700 animated, 14 live-action, 600 documentary, 800 commercials and 600 educational films have been produced at Zagreb Film. Zagreb Film has won more than 500 awards at festivals all over the world. One of them is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award, the Oscar, for the best animated film in 1961, Dušan Vukotić’s The Substitute (Surogat), making Dušan Vukotić the first non-American author to receive this award. Zagreb Film has also produced various animated series for children: Inspector Mask, Professor Balthazar, The Little Flying Bears and Maxi Cat. Most of them are distributed internationally. The character of Professor Balthazar made the biggest success world-wide.

Today, Zagreb Film operates on three locations: 70 Vlaška Street, where the management and film archive are, 18 Nova Ves Street (the House of the Croatian Film) and 7-11 Savska Cesta, where the studio for stop-motion animation is.