The festival was originally started in 1954 and within a few years it became the centerpiece event of the Yugoslav film industry, with the first national awards being presented in 1957.

Over the following decades the festival gained considerable recognition internationally, along with the Yugoslav film industry which continued to thrive since the 1960s.

However, since the Croatian film industry proved to be insufficiently productive, with only a handful of new titles being released each year, the festival's popularity rapidly plummeted.

In 2014, the festival was rebooted by the new artistic team comprising Hrvoje Puksec, Mike Downey and Tanja Milicic.

All the locally produced feature films made in the preceding 12 months are screened at the festival and everyone involved in making them automatically qualify for the Golden Arena award in their respective category.