Vatroslav Mimica

Vatroslav Mimica (born 25 June 1923) is a Croatian film director and screenwriter.

Born in Omiš, Mimica had enrolled at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine before the outbreak of World War II. In 1942 he joined Young Communist League of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) and in 1943 he went on to join the Yugoslav Partisans, becoming a member of their medical units. After the war Mimica wrote literary and film reviews, and his career in filmmaking began in 1950 when he became the director of the Jadran Film production studio.

He had his directorial and screenwriting debut in the 1952 Yugoslav film In the Storm (Croatian: U oluji) which starred Veljko Bulajić, Mia Oremović and Antun Nalis. In the 1950s Mimica worked as a director and writer on a number of critically acclaimed animated films and became a prominent member of the Zagreb School of Animated Films (his 1958 animated short film The Loner (Samac) was awarded the Venice Grand Prix), along with authors such as Vlado Kristl and Academy Award-winning Dušan Vukotić.