His family moved to Serbia, where his father was a geodesist in Pančevo, where Petrić finished his primary and secondary education and graduated in 1948.
Petrić simultaneously published literary and theatre critiques, articles and essays in Politika and NIN, as well as in magazines and journals such as Književnost, Delo, Savremenik, Scena, Književne novine, Mladost, Letopis Matice Srpske, Kultura, Film, Filmske sveske, Polja, and others.
At this time he directed the ritual drama Slovo svetlosti on the stage of the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad.
In Petrić's manuscript legacy there is a substantial chronicle which details the creative process of this experimental stage achievement and the preparatory work on it.
In the period between 1965 and 1968 Petrić spent three semesters attending specialist studies at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow, where he intended to join the doctoral program at that institute, but was unsuccessful due to an ideological disagreement with professor Nikolai Lebedev, and he subsequently returned to Belgrade.
Together with the documentary filmmaker Robert Gardner and the philosopher Stanley Cavell, Petrić established the Harvard Film Archive and became its first curator, fulfilling this duty until his retirement.
"[8] Some of Petrić's most successful plays include: Teater Joakima Vujića performed at the Atelje 212 (1958), Slovo svetlosti at the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad (1967), and an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the US (1980).
The Foundation also collaborates with cultural institutions, artistic organizations and individuals who are conducting research and creating works in the field of film and art.
Moreover, the Foundation contributes to the expansion of the material contained in the Vlada Petrić Collection, which is part of the Harvard Film Archive, to assist in the promotion of scholarly research.