Croatia's biggest documentary film event, ZagrebDox, which was set to take place from 15-22 March, has been postponed, the festival announced on Monday.

“Based on our communication with the Republic of Croatia’s civil protection headquarters, and after talking to the cinemas, as well as local and foreign filmmakers, we had hoped that we would be able to host this year’s festival in the previously announced period, albeit on a smaller scale. However, unfortunately, the deterioration of the situation in Europe, especially in our particular region, as well as today’s decision by and recommendation of the headquarters, have forced us to postpone the festival," said ZagrebDox director Nenad Puhovski in the official statement.

The new dates for the festival are expected to be announced soon.

Meanwhile, the festival's training programme ZagrebDox Pro, which includes 12 projects from 11 countries, whose teams were supposed to come to Zagreb for a workshop and a pitching session with industry experts, will still take place, albeit online.

"Fortunately, we have technological tools at our disposal, so we will be able to run the programme in a way that will most closely resemble what we have planned, so that the participants and their projects can benefit from working with mentors and experts as much as possible. We are currently working intensively on ensuring that the technical side goes as smoothly as possible, and adapting the plan and schedule of the training programme to the online environment," said ZagrebDox Pro producer Marina Burić.