South-East European Film Festival is an international film festival of 15 South-East European countries. The festival is screening a selection of feature, short, documentary and animated films from: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey. Beside these 15 countries all other MEDIA members countries are included in the selection of the festival as producers or co-producers of “SEE films”. The SEE Festival is organized by the University of Audiovisual Arts – European Film, Theater, and Dance Academy – Skopje and its subsidiary “EFA Produkcija”, along with the partners: Humboldt University and “Movie Members GmbH” from Berlin, INALCO – Paris, SEE Association – Paris, and National University of Theater and Film “I.L.Caragiale” from Bucharest as an associate partner organization. The first edition of the SEE a Paris Festival was held in 2011 year, with the participation and presence of numerous film professionals from the SEE region and the rest of Europe. The festival was continuously organized and developed in the following years and from 2015 we started with the annual SEE Festival in Berlin. In 2016 we had edition in Ningbo, China, with selection of short and animated SEE films, giving the festival a global quality, and from 2017 the festival has established close collaboration with Balkan Trafik Festival from Brussels, with exchange of film selection programes and artists performances.
SEE festival is envisioned to represent the best of current cinema production from the South-East European region and to bring it closer to the cultural sphere of the rest of Europe. This festival is an attempt to overcome the differences and the scars from the past, by bringing forward a new, higher perspective, European perspective of cultural integration. The festival also serves as a platform for promotion of the young film professionals, by offering them an opportunity to expand their audience and market. The main objectives of the SEE festival are:
– Bringing SEE cinema, ideas, culture and people closer to the European, and global public, increasing of film literacy.
The results of the SEE festival are:
- Giving SEE film professionals the opportunity of international exposure and promotion and giving the audience the opportunity to see the latest from SEE region.
- Opening opportunities for new contacts and collaborations among SEE and European film professionals, cultural workers, students, and people in general.
- Improving the circulation of film works among European countries, facilitating the cooperation among their cultural sectors and creating opportunities for film organizations and artists from all over Europe.
Promotion of the competitive, creative and original motion picture content from the SEE region to the wider, European media market and audience.
Best short film – “Main Course” by Kristina Barisić [CRO] Best actor – Aleksandar Aleksiev (HEIGHTS) – [BG] Best actress – Ksenija Marinković, Doris Šarić-Kukuljica and Nataša Dorčić (LADA KAMENSKI ) [CRO] Best Script – Jani Bojadzi (MOCKING OF CHRIST) [MK] Best director – Viktor Bojinov (HEIGHTS) [BG] and Csaba Vékes (BEHIND THE COLUMN) [HUN] Best animation – “Echo” by Kosta Rakicević and Borisa Simović [SER] Young Jury Award – “Echo” by Kosta Rakicević and Borisa Simović [SER} Best documentary – Robert Jankuloski (MANAKI, A STORY IN PICTURES) [MK]
MANAKI, A STORY IN PICTURES (2019) – Macedonia
The film incorporates the photographic work of Janaki and Milton Manaki, the first Balkan cinematographers. The Manaki brothers have been mythologized over the years, and additional attributions to their legacy have been made in order to further eulogize their undisputed importance. However, this tendency to add new and unconfirmed information is unnecessary and harmful, since their legacy is already of great cultural value not only to Macedonia but also in the wider Balkan context. For this reason, each and every fact and opinion presented in the film Manaki – A Story in Pictures has been carefully researched and reconfirmed with presented artefacts. The story is told through original documentary photographs and follows the brothers as they open their first professional studio in 1898 in Iannina and later move to Bitola, now known as the city of the Manaki brothers. Director, Writer, Producer: Robert Jankuloski
Co-Writer: Ilindenka Petrusheva
Best feature film – “Never-ending past” by Andro Martinović [MNE]
NEVER-ENDING PAST (2018) – Montenegro Three stories about a father and a son in three time periods: the end of World War II, during the fall of Berlin Wall and after Yugoslavia breakdown.
In each of these stories, father and son find themselves in characteristic, borderline situations, in which they begin to question their own existence. Decisions they are forced to make will change their lives forever. Director, Writer: Andro Martinović Producer: Ivan Djurović Main Cast: Lazar Ristovski, Tihomir Stanić, Srdjan Grahovac, Marko Baćović Jovan Krivokapić, Dubravka Drakić, Danica Ristovski, Mišo Obradović i Mirko Vlahović