Zagreb officials announced on Wednesday the opening of the Zagreb Film Office, a new municipal institution designed to assist film productions and promote the city as a filming location.

“We were given an important mision, and we will do our best to meet the expectations. Within the next few years we wish to put Zagreb on the map, on par with other European cities like Vienna, Prague, and Budapest, which all have their own film bureaus and which are already helping us by shatring their experience and giving us useful advice,” the Zagreb Film Office’s inaugural director, film producer Mia Pecina-Draskovic, told a news conference.

The primary purpose of the Film Office will be to facilitate communication between production companies and various municipal services, as well as promoting Zagreb via a website with local film industry contacts and photographs of potential filming locations.

“Zagreb has had a long history as a filming location, and in recent years it is increasingly beginning to feature in modern film productions,” Zagreb Mayor, Milan Bandic, said.

Although Zagreb was often shown on film in international productions, it often served as a stand in for other cities.

Most famously, parts of the city were used as a backdrop for the 1962 film adaptation of Kafka’s novel The Trial directed by Orson Welles, taking place in Prague. The Academy Award winning 1979 adaptation of Guenter Grass’ novel The Tin Drum was also filmed in the city, as was Jackie Chan’s 1986 action film Armour of God which has since gained a cult following among local cinephiles.

More recently, parts of a 2013 biopic about the last days of Princess Diana starring Naomi Watts were filmed in Zagreb, as well as the 2011 film Goltzius and the Pelican Company by the celebrated British director peter Greenaway.

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