Branko Ištvančić (born April 5, 1967) is a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n film director. Born in

Subotica Subotica (, ; , , ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city in Central Europe and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, contemporary Sub ...

, Ištvančić graduated from the

Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb The Academy of Dramatic Art ( or ADU) is a Croatian drama school. Since its inception in 1896, the institution grew in prominence resulting in its successful affiliation with the University of Zagreb in 1979, along with the Academy of Music and ...

in 1999. Since 2003, he has been employed at the

Croatian Radiotelevision ''Hrvatska radiotelevizija'' ( HRT), or Croatian Radiotelevision, is a Croatian public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite. HRT is divided into three ...

, working as a director of documentary films, educational programs, and television series and films. Ištvančić's award-winning documentary '' The Cormorant Scarecrow'' (1998) has been described by Croatian film critics as one of the best Croatian documentary films of the 1990s. His feature film debut, ''

The Ghost in the Swamp ''The Ghost in the Swamp'' () is a 2006 film directed by Branko Ištvančić, based on the book ''Duh u močvari'' by Anto Gardaš. The film premiered at the 2006 Međunarodni Dječji Festival in Šibenik. Plot After Liptus arrives in a small ...

'', placed 2nd among domestic films in the Croatian box office in 2006. In 2012, he created a film called ''Od zrna do slike'' (, From Grain to Painting), about the

Bunjevci Bunjevci ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Bunjevci, Буњевци, ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=, separator=" / ", Bunjevac, Буњевац, sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=, separator=" / ", Bunjevka, Буњевка) are a South Slavs, South Slavic sub-ethnic ...

Croatian straw artists,

Ana Milodanović Ana Milodanović ( sr-Cyrl, Ана Милодановић; 18 May 1926 – 20 July 2011) was a Serbian straw artist, or ''slamarka'', of Bunjevci, Bunjevka descent. She was the first artist to take the traditional folk art celebrating the harvest ...

and . The film won the Gold Camera for best documentary at its Los Angeles premiere and in 2013, at the International Festival of Ethnographic Film in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, won Grand Prize for Best Film. __NOTOC__

Selected filmography

Short films

* ''Saying Goodbye'' (''Rastanak'', 1993) * ''Freeze Frame'' (''Zamrznuti kadar'', 1999)

Documentary films

* '' The Cormorant Scarecrow'' (1998) * '' Wellman'' (2003) * ''From Grain to Painting'' (2012)

Feature films

* ''

'' (2006) * '' The Bridge at the End of the World'' (2013)

Sources

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Istvancic, Branko 1967 births Living people Croatian film directors Croatian documentary film directors Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb alumni Croats of Vojvodina Film people from Subotica