NEM Zagreb 2025 has opened in the Croatian capital with a first-day programme that put artificial intelligence, production and marketing at the centre of the CEE TV and video conversation.
The two-day event, held at Zagreb’s Esplanade Hotel, brings together traditional broadcasters, streamers, telecoms operators and new-generation creators under a unifying focus on creativity, AI and marketing in video.
The opening panel, CEE Producers: Reflections on the Last 5 Years, set out how regional production has evolved, with Dramedy Productions’ Filip Bobiňski, 4FILM’s Anita Juka, Foss Productions’ Vasilis Chrysanthopoulos, May One’s Ioanina Pavel and Apple Film Production’s Dariusz Jablonski comparing financing models, co-production structures and the growing importance of international partners.
They were followed by Leaders on AI, where senior executives from public and commercial broadcasters and telecoms – including RTV Slovenia’s Natalija Gorščak, Nova TV’s Dražen Mavrić, RTL Croatia & Pro Plus Slovenia’s Stella Litou, A1 Croatia & A1 Slovenia chief executive Dejan Turk, Croatian Telecom boss Nataša Rapaić and HRT director-general Robert Šveb – examined how AI is starting to influence content strategies, distribution models and day-to-day decision-making in the region.
Artificial intelligence also dominated the day’s standalone sessions. Largo.ai founder and CEO Sami Arpa opened with a masterclass on AI as the “new creative partner” in video creation, positioning machine tools as a complement to writers and producers rather than a replacement.
Lühr-Martin Lemkau, founder of Slick Strategy, drilled into Netflix viewing patterns across Central and Eastern Europe in Slick & Quick: How CEE Countries Differ on Netflix?, underlining how platform performance varies sharply by territory and genre.
Real-time virtual production specialist stYpe, represented by solution architect Josip Čajić, showcased live workflows in Real-Time Virtual Production, while EIT Culture & Creativity CEO Anette Schaefer used Europe’s Creative Sovereignty in the Age of AI to argue for European control over key creative and data infrastructures.
Rounding off the AI-focused block, senior media executive Maria Valenzuela outlined practical frameworks for Licensing Your Videos to AI Companies, as rights-holders look at how to monetise catalogues in AI training and synthetic media while retaining control over IP.
The NEM Awards: Live Pitch brought three pre-development drama projects to the stage, in line with the updated NEM Awards structure that now includes a Best Pre-Development TV Series in Europe category. The contenders – Gray Divorce by Inja Korać and Lea Stanković, In Nomine Patris by Anastasia Pashkevich, and The Boy Who Could Listen to the Soil by Vasilis Chrysanthopoulos – pitched to an international jury, with the overall winner to be announced at the NEM Awards ceremony later today (Tuesday).
Earlier, HDNP and SPID hosted a TV market that fed directly into the Croatian Creativity with International Potential strand. Projects such as Measuring the Sky (Siniša Juričić, Petar Orešković), Chasing the Clouds (Jelena Mađarić, Karla Lulić) and Akasha (Miroslav Terzić, Laura Sinovčić) underlined the event’s role as a shop window for Croatian content with export ambitions.
NEM Zagreb continues later with sessions on video advertising across linear TV and connected-TV apps, vertical micro-drama formats, YouTube strategies for broadcasters and further debates on how AI is reshaping streaming monetisation and creative workflows.
