Žilnik made three other short documentaries in the following years, including The Unemployed in 1968, which was a humorous but critical investigation of the conditions of ‘Gastarbeiters’ living and working between Socialist Yugoslavia and West Germany. This was his first major international success, winning the Grand Prix at Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen in Germany, considered then and even today as the premier destination for short film exhibition in Europe. At that point in his career Žilnik was chosen by Avala Film to direct a narrative feature, and in 1968 he began production on his debut feature-length film Early Works, which would go on to mark his career in perpetuity and also to become the climactic point in the public frenzy surrounding the turbulent moment of the Black Wave in Yugoslav film.  