In collaboration with the International Sound & Film Music Festival 2025, Irena Paulus served as the programme author and advisor for the ISFMF’s  project entitled Musical Dialogues – Reimagining Croatian Film Music

For the purposes of the project, Croatian film music, music for television series, and video game music by prominent composers—Alfi Kabiljo, Arsen Dedić, Miljenko Prohaska, Damjan Mravunac, Dalibor Grubačević, and Ozren K. Glaser—were newly arranged. The arrangers were selected through an international open call, with the aim of arranging works by Croatian composers for string quartet, adapting applied music for the concert stage, and formally, thematically, and harmonically shaping a renewed version of these works.

Croatian compositions were arranged by Felix Spiller, Reiko Nomura, Isak Lundberg, Philip Domenico Calisto, Shir-Ran Yinon, and Fabijan Košćak. The result was a beautiful concert, held in October 2025 in the Croatian town of Samobor. which was later repeated at the Music Tribune in Osijek.

Croatian Film Music was a major research project of Croatian National Radiotelevision (HRT) aimed at reconstructing and revitalizing Croatian film music. Its finale—a concert by the HRT Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maestro Aleksandar Marković—took place on 22 December 2021 as a television recording in Studio Anton Marti at Croatian National RadioTelevision’s building in Zagreb.

The project was initiated and conceptually developed by Ivana Kocelj, Head of the HRT Music Department, film expert Dean Šoša, and musicologist and film scholar Irena Paulus, who launched and realized a project that, in addition to Croatian film music, also focused on music created for television series, animated films, and video games.

The concert programme followed the history of Croatian feature film, from the first Croatian sound feature-length film Lisinski, through classic films such as Koncert, Breza, Samo ljudi, and Glembajevi…, to more recent, musically notable films such as Neka ostane među nama. The programme also included music from the television series Gruntovčani, as well as from the only Croatian film to win an Academy Award, the animated film Surogat, and from the animated series Professor Balthazar and the video game Serious Sam.

Music by the following composers was performed: Arsen Dedić, Alfi Kabiljo, Bruno Bjelinski, Igor Kuljerić, Boris Papandopulo, Silvije Bombardelli, Anđelko Kobučar, Bojan Adamič, Tomica Simović, Živan Cvitković, Damjan Mravunac, and Alan Bjelinski. Some of their scores were arranged and/or reconstructed for this occasion by composers Daniel Legin, Matko Brekalo, and Frano Đurović.

Critical Progress is a series of workshops and critical masterclasses that enables participants to gain deeper insight into various artistic and historical aspects of ballet, theatre for children and adults, and musical theatre. The programme focuses on developing advanced skills and knowledge necessary for understanding and interpreting artistic works and performances, as well as for successful, specialized critical writing and other high-quality professional media work in this field, with an emphasis on achieving excellence in the practical aspects of the profession. A special objective is to encourage participants toward creative media work and innovation.

As part of the project, Irena Paulus held a series of masterclasses on musical theatre at the Croatian Catholic University, in both Croatian and English (Musical Theatre – Basics; How to Write about Musical Theatre; Stage Musical, Film Musical; Politically and Socially Engaged Musical). The project is led by Dr. Zlatko Vidačković.