In the early 1960s, Žilnik joined Kino Club Novi Sad, which was a state-sponsored club for nonprofessional film enthusiasts. This is where Žilnik received his first practical experience in making films. Many of his films were shown on the large kino club film festival circuit in Socialist Yugoslavia. After a few years of sustained activity as a club member, including some awards that confirmed him as a promising emerging talent, Žilnik was offered a chance to work as an assistant at Avala Film, and his first credit in feature-length filmmaking was as assistant director to the legendary Dušan Makavejev on his early masterpiece Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator, filmed in 1966. After that, Žilnik directed his first professional documentary Newsreel on Village Youth, Winter, which premiered in 1967. Žilnik received multiple prizes for this debut film, which also announced his interest in documenting the situation of people living on the margins of society.