As the best animated short of 1962, Surogat (“The Substitute”) won the Oscar, and was the first film from outside the USA to do so. Its creator Dušan Vukotić was one of the founders of Zagreb Film in 1953 and the best-known member of the famous Zagreb School of Animated Films.

He received his first international recognition for the film Cowboy Jimmy at the Berlin Film Festival in 1957. In the early 1960s, he turned to film experiments and, by combining animated and live action film, created a masterpiece, the animated-live action short film Igra (“The Game”, 1962). The film was awarded at a dozen international festivals, won the Grand Prix in Oberhausen, first prize in Cannes, and was nominated for an Oscar.

Vukotić received around 90 domestic and foreign awards and accolades for his animated films. He is one of the founders of the World Festival of Animated Film - Animafest in Zagreb in 1972, and was a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The International Animated Film Association (ASIFA) awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.