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The cinema of Croatia has suffered in recent years, with quality films being few and far between in comparison to other countries. Its films are heavily influenced by surrounding countries, more specifically, countries from the former Yugoslavia.

Although motion pictures appeared in Croatia relatively early, for most of the 20th Century the film was almost exclusively in the domain of few dedicated and amateurish enthusiasts, most notably Josip Karaman in Split and, later, Oktavijan Miletić in Zagreb. Croatia lacked the political, economic and cultural infrastructure able to support its own cinema industry. The most serious effort in that direction before World War II was the series of educational films produced by Škola narodnog zdravlja.

The cinema of Croatia became institution after the establishment of Independent State of Croatia in 1941. The new Ustasha regime quickly realised the need for modern propaganda tools modeled after Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. After serious lobbying among those two governments for technical advice and resources, the first propaganda films were made in late 1941. Croatian filmmakers like Branko Marjanović learned very quickly and the 1943 documentary Straža na Drini later won the prestigious Golden Lion award at Venice Film Festival, attended by Axis Powers countries.

After the collapse of NDH in 1945, victorious Tito's Communists also recognised the importance of the film industry and decided to build their own film industry. In Zagreb they inherited technical equipment, and more importantly, decided to keep the NDH-trained personnel, including directors and top officials. The result of such policy was the rapid development of the Croatian film industry, although initially under jurisdiction of the federal government in Belgrade.

In 1947 Jadran Film studios were founded in Zagreb. A year later, Tito's Yugoslavia broke up with other Eastern Bloc countries and gradually opened economic and other links to the West. That included the film industry, with Jadran Film infrastructure being used by Italian, West German and American filmmakers to produce historical epics and later spaghetti westerns. A whole new generation of filmamakers was thus formed, and many important experiences were learned in this way. Zagreb also excelled in its own animation film school, with most notable man being Dušan Vukotić, winner of 1963 Oscar for his animated short Surogat.

Croatian feature films at that time were, however, indistiguishable from the rest of the films made in former Yugoslavia, mostly due to free flow of resources and talents, and until 1970s it was hard to recognise the Croatian film industry as separate entity. Some actors like Boris Dvornik emerged as genuine stars, as well as well-respected directors like Krešimir Golik, Branko Bauer and Vatroslav Mimica. The Croatian film industry later received an additional boost in the form of Radiotelevizija Zagreb (now Croatian Radiotelevision), founded in 1956 - another training ground for talents.

In the early 1970s, following Yugoslav constitutional changes, Croatia gained more autonomy in shaping its cultural affairs. This, ironically, had long-term detrimental effects on the Croatian film industry. Following the collapse of the Croatian Spring, Croatian Communist authorities in 1970s pushed for tighter control over films. This was reflected not only in their general content - much more restricted compared with other Yugoslav republics - but also in the greater role of the state in financing films, which in turn, created a whole new generation of "acceptable" filmmakers immune from criticism and public. As a result, the general quality of Croatian films declined, especially when the older generation died or retired.

Those problems continued even when Croatia became independent. Due to wars, the market for Croatian films shrank and none of Croatian films could expect to be financially viable without even greater support from the state. This demanded more nationalist content, making it less accessible not only to audiences in other countries, but also in Croatia itself.

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