IRENA PAULUS
Irena Paulus is a musicologist, filmologist, music critic and music pedagogue with extensive experience in film music and other types of applied music, unique in Croatia. She is the author of numerous papers and books, dedicated to making music accessible to a wider audience.
“She wrote it beautifully; I felt a great dedication and immersion in the film and sound. I did not expect such an analysis, yet she arrived at such strong conclusions.”
Dana Budisavljević, film director
“The meticulous analyses by Irena Paulus reveal layers of films that would escape a less attentive ear and eye.”
Dalibor Davidović, musicologist
“In the craft-based writings of Irena Paulus, one learns much that is substantial about the nature of work on film music, about composers’ orientations and their individual solutions. Her ‘detailed analyses,’ or ‘case studies’ of individual films—namely, her interpretations of the sound–film structure of selected films—constitute a key musicological and film-studies contribution to the science of art.”
Hrvoje Turković, film scholar and film critic
“Irena Paulus is always wonderful to listen to—both at the university and on the radio. Moreover, she has taught generations of her doctoral students to look at, or rather listen to, films in a different and more complex way.”
Vanja Kulaš for the Zonafilma, the official portal of the Croatian Film Critics’ Society
“Her multifaceted work at the radio station, as a music journalist, a music pedagogue, an organizer of diverse kinds of cultural events, as well as being the author of books and scientific articles – puts Irena Paulus in a category of extraordinary achievers. She is also a profoundly strong generalist whose education made her competent in disciplines of music, film, literature, and philosophy.”
Mladen Milićević, Professor and Chair Recording Arts Department Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles
“I have known Irena’s work since her ground-breaking article ‘Williams versus Wagner or: An Attempt at Linking Musical Epics’, which was one of the first important scholarly writings on John Williams. When I was commissioned to design and edit John Williams: Music for Films, Television, and the Concert Stage, the first collection of essays in English on the composer, I immediately contacted Irena to commission from her a chapter. She delivered a magnificently insightful article.”
Emilio Audissino, specialist on the film composer John Williams
THE ANTE PETERLIĆ AWARD
The Croatian Film Critics Association has awarded Irena Paulus the Ante Peterlić Award for 2024 and 2025, for excellence in film journalism. She received the award for the book Audiovision of Croatian Film, in which she discusses music of seven Croatian film composers: Alen and Nenad Sinkauz, Mate Matišić, Dalibor Grubacevic, Igor Paro, Alfi Kabiljo and Tomislav Simović. The competition was strong – excellent filmological works were written during 2024 and 2025 by prominent film scholars. Even though, the committee recognized Paulus’s many years of work and effort in the field of promoting Croatian film music.
