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Film Festivals in Pula
Pula Film Festival
The Istrian port whose first-century Roman amphitheater becomes an open-air cinema every July, as it has since 1954.
No overall organizer. Javna Ustanova Pula Film Festival anchors the event; the rest belongs to the streets.
Dates & details verified against: Official event site ↗
Why here
The Pula Film Festival is Croatia's oldest, running since 1954, and its main screen is the reason to come: films play inside the first-century Pula Arena, a Roman amphitheater that held some 23,000 spectators and ranks among the six largest surviving anywhere. The 2026 edition, the seventy-third, runs July 9-16 with more than 150 screenings across ten-plus venues and the Golden Arena national awards, sixty years after the competitive format began. Watching a premiere under a two-thousand-year-old limestone ellipse, with the harbor behind the screen, is one of European cinema's singular settings.
Best months
Annual in mid-July: the 2026 edition runs July 9-16. Arena screenings start after dark; bring a layer for the stone seats. Day programs fill the city's cinemas and Kastel fortress.
Getting there & around
Pula airport has summer European links; the Arena and satellite venues are all walkable. Istria's truffle country and hill towns are under an hour away.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Pula Film Festival
OrganizerThe City of Pula public institution staging the Arena screenings and Golden Arena awards each July since 1954.
Also good for film festivals in July:
Torn between Pula Film Festival and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for July?
A plan settles it for your skill and budget, same-day.