The Golden Arena awards were established in 1955 as the Yugoslav national film awards, presented annually at the Pula Film Festival. From 1955 to 1990 the awards were given for highest achievements in Yugoslav cinema. In 1991 the festival was cancelled due to the breakup of Yugoslavia, only to resume in 1992 as the Croatian film awards festival. It has been held every year since (with the exception of the 1994 edition which was also cancelled).

Since each Pula Film Festival includes screenings of all the locally produced feature films made in the preceding 12 months (which is made possible due to the local film industry's relatively low output), everyone involved in making them is considered automatically qualified for the Golden Arena award. Therefore there are no Academy Award-style shortlists of nominees announced prior to the actual awarding ceremony, although some festival editions did award runner-up acting awards, called Silver Arena.

The awards are given by the jury of five or six members, usually consisting of prominent filmmakers and film critics. Some festival editions also had Best Actor winners as voted by audiences, but these are not considered Golden Arena awards. Also, in the 1950s and 1960s awards in the acting category were given for actors' whole body of work in the preceding year so some of the more prolific recipients are officially listed as having won the Golden Arena award for several films made that year.

List of winners The following is a list of winners of the Golden Arena for Best Actor at the Pula Film Festival.

Yugoslav competition (1955–1990) YearWinnerEnglish title(s)Original title(s)1955 Moments of Decision Trenutki odločitve1956 (shared)Don't Look Back, My Son Ne okreći se sine1956 (shared)Big and Small Veliki i mali1957 Master of His Own Body Svoga tela gospodar1958 Tri koraka u prazno1959 Miss StoneMis Ston1960 Atomic War Bride Rat1961 Veselica1962 Dr1963 Men Muškarci1964 The March to River Drina Marš na Drinu1965 ThreeThe Enemy Tri Sovražnik1966 (shared)Looking Into the Eyes of the Sun Pogled u zjenicu sunca1966 (shared) RondoRondo1967 I Even Met Happy GypsiesThe Birch TreeThe Feast Skupljači perja Breza Praznik1968 Before the TruthWolf of ProkletijePre istine Vuk sa Prokletija1969 When You Hear the BellsThe Bridge Kad čuješ zvona Most1970 Oxygen Oxygen1971 Black Seed Crno seme1972 The Master and MargaretTraces of a Black Haired GirlMaestro i Margarita Tragovi crne devojke1973 A Performance of Hamlet in the Village of Mrdusa DonjaThe Battle of SutjeskaBombaši Predstava Hamleta u Mrduši Donjoj Sutjeska1974 The Wedding Svadba1975 Fear  StrahDoktor Mladen1976 Idealist Idealist1977 ManhuntBeastsThe Written Off ReturnHajkaBeštijePovratak otpisanih1978 Bravo MaestroBravo maestro1979 The Return Povratak1980 Rad na određeno vreme1981 The Falcon Banović Strahinja1982 Savamala Savamala1983 Something In-BetweenNešto između1984 Balkan SpyBalkanski špijun1985 When Father Was Away on BusinessOtac na službenom putu1986 Evening Bells Večernja zvona1987 Officer with a Rose Oficir s ružom1988 The Glembays Glembajevi1989 Cafe Astoria Kavana Astoria1990 Silent GunpowderGluvi barut

Croatian competition (1992–present) YearWinnerEnglish film titleOriginal film title1991 Festival was cancelled.1992 The Murmur of the Shell Školjka šumi1993 The Golden YearsZlatne godine1994 Award ceremony was cancelled.1995 Washed OutIsprani1996 The Seventh Chronicle Sedma kronika1997 Mondo Bobo Mondo Bobo1998 TransatlanticTransatlantik1999 MadonnaBogorodica2000 Marshal Tito's Spirit Maršal2001 Slow Surrender Polagana predaja2002 Fine Dead GirlsFine mrtve djevojke2003 HereTu2004 Long Dark NightDuga mračna noć2005 What Iva RecordedŠto je Iva snimila 21. listopada 2003.2006 The Melon RoutePut lubenica2007 Armin Armin2008 No One's SonNičiji sin2009 MetastasesMetastaze2010 72 Days,The AbandonedSedamdeset i dva dana, Ostavljeni2011 Kotlovina Kotlovina2012 Cannibal Vegetarian Ljudožder vegetarijanac2013 A Stranger Obrana i zaštita2014 The Reaper Kosac2015 These Are the Rules Takva su pravila2016 On the Other Side S one strane2017 The Constitution Ustav Republike Hrvatske2018 Comic Sans Comic Sans2019 What a Country!Koja je ovo država2020 Fishing and Fisherman's ConversationsRibanje i ribarsko prigovaranje2021 Once We Were Good for You A bili smo vam dobri2022 The Staffroom Zbornica2023 Safe Place Sigurno mjesto2024 Celebration Proslava2025 Good Children Dobra djeca2026 Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day Lijepa večer, lijep dan

Multiple winners The following actors have received multiple awards. The list is sorted by the number of total awards. Years in bold indicate wins in Yugoslavian competition (1955–1990).

4 : Ljuba Tadić (1956, 1964, 1968, 1975) 4 : Ivo Gregurević (1999, 2002, 2005, 2014) 4 : Filip Šovagović (1995, 1998, 2001, 2025) 4 : Rade Šerbedžija (1978, 1986, 2010, 2020) 3 : Bata Živojinović (1965, 1967, 1972) 3 : Ljubiša Samardžić (1973, 1980, 1982) 3 : Rene Bitorajac (2009, 2012, 2021) 2 : Pavle Vuisić (1958, 1977) 2 : Boris Dvornik (1969, 1979) 2 : Miki Manojlović (1983, 1985) 2 : Ilija Ivezić (1993, 2000) 2 : Emir Hadžihafizbegović (2007, 2015) 2 : Krešimir Mikić (2006, 2019)

References

External links Web archive 1954–2010 at the Pula Film Festival official website