Sveti Ivan Zelina won the Silver Gate of Berlin for a tourism film presented at ITB Berlin 2026

Sveti Ivan Zelina won a Berlin award for a tourism film that presents the destination as an ideal weekend getaway

The promotional tourism film of the Tourist Board of the Town of Sveti Ivan Zelina, Weekend Inspiration Enjoy Sveti Ivan Zelina! - Croatia, won the Silver Gate of Berlin award at the international tourism and promotional film festival The Golden City Gate, which is traditionally held as part of the ITB Berlin tourism fair. It is a recognition that carries both symbolic and market weight for a small continental destination, because it comes from one of the world’s most visible stages dedicated to tourism, destination marketing, and travel promotion. This year’s edition of ITB Berlin was held from March 3 to 5, while the official awards ceremony of The Golden City Gate festival was held on March 4 at the fairgrounds in Berlin.

In just under three minutes, the film shapes an image of Sveti Ivan Zelina as a destination for a short yet fulfilling holiday. At the center of the story are not only postcard views and beautiful shots, but a carefully constructed message about a destination rooted in nature, wine culture, local tradition, and higher-category accommodation. Precisely that combination, according to the project description and the impressions presented alongside the film, was key to ensuring that Zelina in Berlin was not perceived merely as another point on the map of continental Croatia, but as a rounded tourism story with a clear identity and recognizable reasons to visit.

A recognition from an address well known to the tourism industry

The The Golden City Gate festival has been held since 2001 and specializes in tourism films, promotional campaigns, multimedia content, and other communication formats related to travel, destinations, and the hotel industry. The organizers state that the best works in individual categories are awarded gold, silver, and bronze Gates of Berlin, and that the winners are decided by an international jury made up of 45 experts from the fields of tourism, marketing, film, public relations, design, and public institutions. That is precisely why this type of recognition in the tourism sector has greater value than the festival statue itself: it represents confirmation that the content is competitive enough to be recognized by professionals who assess every day how destinations are presented to a global audience.

Additional weight is given to the award by the context in which it was presented. ITB Berlin, which this year took place from March 3 to 5, is one of the world’s most important B2B tourism fairs and a place where national tourism boards, cities, regions, hotel groups, technology companies, transport providers, and destination development experts meet. In such an environment, every recognition for a promotional film also means visibility among the people who decide on partnerships, media presence, content distribution, and the perception of a destination on foreign markets. For Sveti Ivan Zelina, this is also important because it is positioning itself as a destination reachable from Zagreb in a short time, yet with enough specificity to stand out from the ever-stronger competition among weekend destinations in the continental part of Croatia and the region.

How the film builds the image of the destination

The film Weekend Inspiration starts from the idea that today’s traveler does not necessarily seek a long journey in order to experience a break from everyday life. In that logic, Sveti Ivan Zelina is shown as a place where, in a short time, one can combine a stay in nature, local gastronomy, wine culture, tradition, and accommodation that offers a higher level of comfort. Visually, the film builds its narrative around green hills, vineyards, wine cellars, local flavors, and a rhythm of rest that is not imposing, but calm and authentic. Such an approach fits well into contemporary tourism trends, in which shorter trips, sustainability, the experience of a place, and the feeling of real contact with the local environment are gaining ever greater value.

The Tourist Board of Sveti Ivan Zelina already presented a new communication direction for the destination in autumn 2025 under the name “Zelina – weekend inspiration”. It was then emphasized that the town wants to brand itself more strongly as a desirable address for a short holiday, especially through the segment of staying in nature and wine tourism. In the official presentation, it was stressed that Zelina uses the advantage of its location, hilly landscape, a growing number of attractive accommodation facilities, and the development of wineries to offer more than a one-day trip. The Berlin success of the film can therefore also be read as international confirmation of that new communication identity.

Nature, wine, and hospitality as the main defining features

The central message of the film is not spectacle, but harmony. Sveti Ivan Zelina is presented as a place where a guest can slow down, yet not be left without content. The natural landscape is not just scenery, but the foundation of the experience, while wine and tradition are not shown as folkloric decoration, but as part of the everyday life of a region whose distinctiveness is based on continuity. Official tourism announcements about the destination in recent months have built their message precisely on that: Zelina is close enough to a big city to be practical for a weekend trip, yet sufficiently set apart and rich in content to provide a feeling of escape from the urban routine.

A special place in that identity is held by Zelinska kraljevina, an indigenous variety that is mentioned in promotional materials and tourism texts as an important part of the local wine story. Alongside it come vineyards, vineyard cottages, modern and family wineries, but also the broader impression of the Prigorje landscape that connects gastronomy, scenery, and local culture. The film therefore does not promote only a single event or an individual attraction, but seeks to unite several layers of the destination into one clear and easily transferable image: a weekend in Zelina means a blend of greenery, wine, authenticity, and relaxation.

Production behind the award-winning film

The film was produced by Balduči film, producer Spomenka Saraga, in cooperation with director Hervé Tirmarche, director of photography Jalil Armija, and screenwriter Marinka Zubčić Mubrin. It is an author-producer team that has already collaborated on tourism promotion projects connected with the Zelina region and wine-related content. In earlier announcements by the Tourist Board, it is stated that Balduči film also worked on the project WINE ROAD, a film that was also internationally awarded, among other places at The Golden City Gate festival in Berlin and at the MUSE Awards festival in New York.

That continuity of cooperation is important because it points to a thought-out strategy rather than a one-off marketing attempt. In tourism promotion, it is often not crucial merely to shoot an aesthetically attractive film, but to develop a recognizable communication signature that can be upgraded through different campaigns, projects, and market appearances. In the case of Sveti Ivan Zelina, it is visible that precisely such a sequence has been built in recent years: from the promotion of wine roads and eno-gastronomic content to the broader presentation of the destination as a place for a short holiday, a stay in nature, and an experience of local culture.

What this award means for Sveti Ivan Zelina

The statement by the director of the Tourist Board of the Town of Sveti Ivan Zelina, Marinka Zubčić Mubrin, that this is yet another major recognition and confirmation that Sveti Ivan Zelina is becoming an increasingly recognizable destination for a weekend holiday fits into the broader picture of the town’s development. For some time now, Zelina has been building visibility through tourism that does not rely on mass scale, but on niches with higher added value: wine tourism, staying in nature, local gastronomy, events, sustainability, and accommodation aimed at guests ready for a quality experience, rather than just a short stop.

In that sense, an international festival award can have several concrete effects. The first is reputational: the destination gains one more argument in communication toward partners, media, and potential guests. The second is promotional: an award-winning film is easier to distribute, show, and use in campaigns, at fairs, and on digital platforms. The third is developmental: local stakeholders, from renters and winemakers to restaurateurs and event organizers, receive confirmation that the shared story about the destination has the potential to reach beyond local frameworks. For small towns and continental destinations, precisely that confirmation is often important because it shows that international visibility is not reserved only for the coast and the largest urban centers.

A success that does not come in isolation

The Berlin award does not come out of empty space. The Tourist Board of Sveti Ivan Zelina had already received international recognition in 2025 within the Green Destinations Top 100 Stories framework, and then also a nomination for the final awards that are likewise presented at ITB in Berlin. In this way, Zelina was simultaneously building two important pillars of its own image: on the one hand, a story about sustainability and quality destination management, and on the other, a story about modern and professional promotion. When those two lines are combined, the result is a model that is increasingly sought after in tourism: an authentic and sustainable destination that knows how to communicate its advantages clearly and attractively.

Official announcements about Zelina in recent months also point to the additional strengthening of the destination’s identity infrastructure, from a promotional brochure and video to a mobile application and the highlighting of local content through an events calendar, accommodation, and gastro offer. All this shows that the award-winning film is not an isolated product, but part of a broader communication package. In practice, this means that a guest who watches the film and becomes interested in the destination should immediately be able to find concrete information about what can be experienced, tasted, visited, and where one can stay there. Without that link between inspiration and practical offer, not even the best promotional video would have its full effect.

Why short formats are becoming ever more important in destination promotion

In the era of digital platforms, short promotional films have become one of the key tools of tourism communication. Today, audiences often consume content quickly, on social networks, on fair screens, or during short presentations, so a destination must convey both emotion and information in a small amount of time. That does not mean that promotion is reduced to superficial postcards, but that great precision is required of the creators: in a few minutes, they must show the uniqueness of a place, its pace, atmosphere, and the reason why someone would choose it over dozens of other options.

That is precisely why the success of the film Weekend Inspiration is interesting not only as a local news story about an award won. It also speaks to the fact that Sveti Ivan Zelina managed to formulate a message that is understandable to an international audience. A traveler who may never have heard of the place can discern from the film the basic idea of the destination: it is not a mass destination, but a place for a break, wine, nature, and an authentic weekend experience. In an era when destinations are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish themselves from one another, the clarity of such a message is a great advantage.

Continental tourism needs clear stories, and Zelina obviously has one

Croatian continental tourism has for years been trying to emerge more strongly from the shadow of the coast, and not everyone succeeds equally in that. The reason lies not only in market habits, but also in the fact that continental destinations must explain more precisely what exactly they offer and why they are worth the trip. In recent years, Sveti Ivan Zelina has been finding a recognizable direction in this: proximity to Zagreb, landscape, wine, local tradition, events, and sustainability have been turned into a story that is simple enough to be understandable, but also layered enough to retain a guest’s interest.

The Berlin award is therefore more than a one-off success of a promotional video. It shows that a local tourism strategy, when connected with a clear identity and professional execution, can receive international confirmation and open space for further strengthening of the destination. For Sveti Ivan Zelina, this means an additional tailwind at the moment when it is positioning itself as a continental address for weekend travel, wine experiences, and stays in nature. If one is to judge by the recognitions received so far and the visibility the destination is achieving, Zelina is appearing less and less as a hidden local recommendation, and more and more as a place that knows what it is and how to tell that to the world.

Sources:
- The Golden City Gate – official information about the festival, award categories, and the composition of the international jury (link)
- The Golden City Gate – official dates of the 2026 edition and the timing of the awards ceremony during ITB Berlin (link)
- ITB Berlin – official page about the program and dates of ITB Berlin 2026 (link)
- Tourist Board of the Town of Sveti Ivan Zelina – presentation of the new tourism brand “Zelina – weekend inspiration” and a description of the destination messages (link)
- Tourist Board of the Town of Sveti Ivan Zelina – official description of the town, transport connections, and the main features of the destination (link)
- Tourist Board of the Town of Sveti Ivan Zelina – earlier announcement about the awards of the film WINE ROAD and the continuity of international recognitions for Zelina’s promotional films (link)
- Green Destinations – official information about the Story Awards at ITB Berlin 2026 and the Top 100 Stories program (link)
- YouTube – publication of the video “Weekend Inspiration - Sveti Ivan Zelina” on the official channel of the Tourist Board (link)