Golden Arena for Best Director

The Golden Arena for Best Director (Croatian: Zlatna arena za režiju) is an award given for best director at the Pula Film Festival, which was until 1992 the Yugoslav equivalent of the Academy Awards. Since 1992 and the breakup of Yugoslavia the competition narrowed to Croatian films only. The first festival was held in 1954, but the award was introduced in 1955.

Golden Arena for Best Director
Awarded for	"Outstanding achievement in cinematic direction"
Country	Yugoslavia (1955–1991) Croatia (1992–present)
Presented by	Pula Film Festival Jury
First award	1955
Currently held by	Zrinko Ogresta (2021)
Website	Official Website

Main article: Pula Film Festival

List of winners

Yugoslav competition (1955–90)

Year	Director	International title	Original title	Ref.
001954 (1st)	No jury prizes awarded in 1954.			[1]
001955 (2nd)	František Čáp	Moments of Decision	Trenutki odločitve	[2]
001956 (3rd)	Branko Bauer	Don't Look Back, My Son	Ne okreći se sine	[3]
001957 (4th)	Soja Jovanović	Priests Ćira and Spira	Pop Ćira i pop Spira	[4]
001958 (5th)	Nikola Tanhofer	H-8	H-8	[5]
001959 (6th)	Jože Babič	Three Quarters of a Sun	Tri četrtine sonca	[6]
001960 (7th)	Veljko Bulajić	Atomic War Bride	Rat	[7]
001961 (8th)	Golden Arena for Best Director not awarded in 1961 and 1962.			[8][9]
001962 (9th)
001963 (10th)	Branko Bauer (shared) (2)	Face to Face	Licem u lice	[10]
	Igor Pretnar (shared)	Wild Growth	Samorastniki
001964 (11th)	Žika Mitrović (shared)	March on the Drina	Marš na Drinu	[11]
	France Štiglic (shared)	Don't Cry, Peter	Ne joči, Peter
001965 (12th)	Aleksandar Petrović	Three	Tri	[12]
001966 (13th)	Vatroslav Mimica	Monday or Tuesday	Ponedjeljak ili utorak	[13]
001967 (14th)	Puriša Đorđević (shared)	The Morning	Jutro	[14]
	Aleksandar Petrović (shared) (2)	I Even Met Happy Gypsies	Skupljači perja
001968 (15th)	Živojin Pavlović	When I Am Dead and Gone	Kad budem mrtav i beo	[15]
001969 (16th)	Fedor Škubonja	Downstream from the Sun	Nizvodno od sunca	[16]
001970 (17th)	Krsto Papić	Handcuffs	Lisice	[17]
001971 (18th)	Kiril Cenevski	Black Seed	Crno seme	[18]
001972 (19th)	Aleksandar Petrović (3)	The Master and Margaret	Maestro i Margarita	[19]
001973 (20th)	Matjaž Klopčič	Blossoms in Autumn	Cvetje v jesen	[20]
001974 (21st)	Zdravko Velimirović	Death and the Dervish	Derviš i smrt	[21]
001975 (22nd)	Matjaž Klopčič (2)	Fear	Strah	[22]
001976 (23rd)	Goran Paskaljević	Beach Guard in Winter	Čuvar plaže u zimskom periodu	[23]
001977 (24th)	Živojin Pavlović (2)	Manhunt	Hajka	[24]
001978 (25th)	Srđan Karanović	Fragrance of Wild Flowers	Miris poljskog cveća	[25]
001979 (26th)	Fadil Hadžić	Journalist	Novinar	[26]
001980 (27th)	Goran Paskaljević (2)	Special Treatment	Poseban tretman	[27]
001981 (28th)	Golden Arena for Best Director not awarded in 1981.			[28]
001982 (29th)	Miloš Radivojević	Living Like the Rest of Us	Živeti kao sav normalan svet	[29]
001983 (30th)	Srđan Karanović (2)	Something in Between	Nešto između	[30]
001984 (31st)	Rajko Grlić	In the Jaws of Life	U raljama života	[31]
001985 (32nd)	Emir Kusturica	When Father Was Away on Business	Otac na službenom putu	[32]
001986 (33rd)	Lordan Zafranović	Evening Bells	Večernja zvona	[33]
001987 (34th)	Vladimir Blaževski	Hi-Fi	Haj-faj	[34]
001988 (35th)	Žarko Dragojević	The House by the Railway Tracks	Kuće pored pruge	[35]
001989 (36th)	Jože Pogačnik	Cafe Astoria	Kavana Astoria	[36]
001990 (37th)	Filip Robar Dorin	The Windhunter	Veter v mreži	[37]

Croatian competition (1992–present)

Year	Director	International title	Original title	Ref.
001991 (38th)	Festival cancelled.			[38]
001992 (39th)	Krsto Papić (2)	Story from Croatia	Priča iz Hrvatske	[39]
001993 (40th)	Davor Žmegač	The Golden Years	Zlatne godine	[40]
001994 (41st)	National film programme cancelled, no prizes awarded.			[41]
001995 (42nd)	Zrinko Ogresta	Washed Out	Isprani	[42]
001996 (43rd)	Vinko Brešan	How the War Started on My Island	Kako je počeo rat na mom otoku	[43]
001997 (44th)	Goran Rušinović	Mondo Bobo	Mondo Bobo	[44]
001998 (45th)	Krsto Papić (3)	When the Dead Start Singing	Kad mrtvi zapjevaju	[45]
001999 (46th)	Zrinko Ogresta (2)	Red Dust	Crvena prašina	[46]
002000 (47th)	Lukas Nola	Celestial Body	Nebo, sateliti	[47]
002001 (48th)	Bruno Gamulin	Slow Surrender	Polagana predaja	[48]
002002 (49th)	Dalibor Matanić	Fine Dead Girls	Fine mrtve djevojke	[49]
002003 (50th)	Vinko Brešan (2)	Witnesses	Svjedoci	[50]
002004 (51st)	Antun Vrdoljak	Long Dark Night	Duga mračna noć	[51]
002005 (52nd)	Tomislav Radić	What Iva Recorded	Što je Iva snimila 21. listopada 2003.	[52]
002006 (53rd)	Antonio Nuić	All for Free	Sve džaba	[53]
002007 (54th)	Kristijan Milić	The Living and the Dead	Živi i mrtvi	[54]
002008 (55th)	Arsen Anton Ostojić	No One's Son	Ničiji sin	[55]
002009 (56th)	Goran Dević (co-director)	The Blacks	Crnci	[56]
	Zvonimir Jurić (co-director)
002010 (57th)	Rajko Grlić (2)	Just Between Us	Neka ostane među nama	[57]
002011 (58th)	Dalibor Matanić (2)	Daddy	Ćaća	[58]
002012 (59th)	Branko Schmidt	Vegetarian Cannibal	Ljudožder vegetarijanac	[59]
002013 (60th)	Bobo Jelčić	A Stranger	Obrana i zaštita	[60]
002014 (61st)	Kristijan Milić (2)	Number 55	Broj 55	[61]
002015 (62nd)	Dalibor Matanić (3)	The High Sun	Zvizdan	[62]
002016 (63rd)	Zrinko Ogresta (3)	On the Other Side	S one strane	[63]
002017 (64th)	Hana Jušić	Quit Staring at My Plate	Ne gledaj mi u pijat	[64]
002018 (65th)	Nevio Marasović	Comic Sans	Comic Sans	[65]
002019 (66th)	Dana Budisavljević	The Diary of Diana B	Dnevnik Diane Budisavljević	[66]
002020 (67th)	Danilo Šerbedžija	Tereza37	Tereza37
002021 (68th)	Zrinko Ogresta (4)	A Blue Flower	Plavi cvijet
002022 (69th)	Sonja Tarokić	The Staffroom	Zbornica
002023 (70th)	Juraj Lerotić	Safe Place	Sigurno mjesto
002024 (71st)	Silvestar Kolbas	Our Children	Naša djeca

Multiple winners

The following directors have received multiple awards. The list is sorted by the number of total awards. Years in bold indicate wins in Yugoslav competition (1955–1990). Shared wins are indicated with an asterisk (*).

4 : Zrinko Ogresta (1995, 1999, 2016, 2021) 3 : Aleksandar Petrović (1965, 1967*, 1972) 3 : Krsto Papić (1970, 1992, 1998) 3 : Dalibor Matanić (2002, 2011, 2015) 2 : Branko Bauer (1956*, 1963) 2 : Matjaž Klopčič (1973, 1975)

2 : Živojin Pavlović (1968, 1977) 2 : Goran Paskaljević (1976, 1980) 2 : Srđan Karanović (1978, 1983) 2 : Vinko Brešan (1996, 2003) 2 : Rajko Grlić (1984, 2010) 2 : Kristijan Milić (2007, 2014)