Oktavijan Miletić

Oktavijan Miletić (1 October 1902 – 17 August 1987) was a Croatian cinematographer and director. His avant-garde work in the period from 1928 to 1945 remains as one of the foundations of Croatian film.[1]

Miletić was one of the founders of the Zagreb film club in 1928.[2]

Miletić participated in an amateur film competition in Paris in 1933 with his Poslovi konzula Dorgena and received an award from Louis Lumière.[3] His 1937 film Šešir was the first Croatian movie filmed with sound.[3] In the Independent State of Croatia, Miletić filmed three cultural films for Germany's Tobis Film: Hrvatski kipari, Hrvatski seljački život and Agram, die Hauptstadt Kroatiens.[4] While all three films were originally thought lost, Daniel Rafaelić discovered Hrvatski seljački život in a Vienna film archive in 2004 and in 2008 discovered Agram, die Hauptstadt Kroatiens in a German film archive.[4]

In 1942 he filmed Barok u Hrvatskoj, about the life of count Janko Drašković.[5] In 1944 Miletić filmed the full-length feature Lisinski about the Croatian composer Vatroslav Lisinski.[6] He spent the waning months of the Second World War working to safekeep the films of the Croatian state institute Hrvatski slikopis.[6]

In 1967 he received the Vladimir Nazor Award for lifetime achievement in film arts.[7] The Oktavijan Award is awarded annually by the Croatian Association of Film Critics as part of the Days of Croatian Film.[8]

He was born in Zagreb, which is also where he died.