About us

The idea for this film festival emanated from the dire need for a wider space to present debut films by many new filmmakers from the region and all over the world. The International Film Festival KineNova Skopje, therefore, includes activities such as promotion, support, incentives, exchange of experiences, and film awards. It is a venue for new filmmakers to showcase new stories and offer a fresh perspective of humanity and the world we live in.

The festival and the city of Skopje have the honor to be the meeting point for new filmmakers and a springboard for their respective career paths.

This year, the KINENOVA festival marks a significant milestone. 10 years, 120 months of dedicated and continuous work, to fulfill the great mission, to find the best, the bravest among the new authors voices, those who will lead the new trends in film art. For me, this was a great pleasure, but also a great responsibility, to raise the criteria in our field, but also to strugle for a space for independent, free-thinking, honest creators, to promote Macedonian cinema in an international context, but also to add value to our cinematography and film education process and to be the important, encouraging factor on the difficult path, on which many new filmmakers are discouraged. It is obvious that like never before, with the help of new technologies, the possibility of the International co-productions and the use of international funds, the creation of a film is a possible mission, but I believe that at the same time, like never before, it is difficult to freely create and freely choose a topic for creation, because the authors are brought to an incredible position of self-censorship, forcing themselves to follow the modern, often subtly or authoritarianly imposed trends in contemporary societies and the needs of certain interest groups to promote their interests. Consequently, as a result of these processes, we have “works” that promote, rather than communicate and open questions, dilemmas and dialogue for the common good of humanity, for communication between free people and cultures. Here, I believe that KineNova has a particularly important role, as part of the world scene of independent film festivals, which keeps its space free and clear of interests that threaten the freedom of artistic expression in the art of cinema. I feel honored that my work, but also the work of the team around me, has been recognized and acknowledged by the masterst of the world cinema, but in the same time open-minded authors such as: Ullrich Seidl, Eldiko Enyedi, Krzysztof Zanussi, Mira Furlan, Razvan Radulescu, Branka, Katic, Zarko Lausevic, Liv Ullmann, Meto Jovanovski, Anica Dobra, Dag Johan Haugerud and many others, who were part of the festival and confirmed its quality and value with their active presence, but also by highlighting its importance.