North Macedonia will have a visible and multidimensional presence at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, taking place from 14 to 21 August 2026. Macedonian participation extends beyond film screenings: it includes competitive and parallel programmes, international co-productions, festival decision-making, institutional representation and important professional discussions about authorship, copyright, collective rights management and artificial intelligence.

Across the Festival’s programme, at least six selected films carry direct North Macedonian creative or production involvement. Three of them are included in the principal competition programmes.

In the Competition Programme – Narrative Feature Film, 17, directed by Kosara Mitić and produced as a co-production between North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia, will represent a new generation of Macedonian filmmaking. The same competition also includes Shame and Money, directed by Visar Morina, an international production involving North Macedonia alongside Germany, Kosovo, Slovenia, Albania and Belgium.

The Competition Programme – Documentary Film will host the world premiere of Good People (Добри луѓе) by Milcho Manchevski. Its selection gives Macedonian documentary filmmaking a prominent place within one of the region’s most closely followed festival competitions.

North Macedonian participation continues throughout the wider Festival programme. Darko Štante’s Everything That’s Wrong with You, an international co-production involving North Macedonia, is included in the Open Air Premiere programme. Skateboarding Is Not for Girls, a North Macedonian-led co-production, appears in TeenArena, while Teona Strugar Mitevska’s completed feature film Mother, an international co-production involving North Macedonia, is presented in the Festival’s In Focus programme.

Taken together, these works demonstrate the range of the country’s current audiovisual presence: established and emerging filmmakers, fiction and documentary cinema, youth-oriented storytelling, majority productions and international co-productions.

Teona Strugar Mitevska’s presence in Sarajevo also extends beyond the screening programme. Her upcoming television series Small Yugoslavia, created and written together with Slovenian filmmaker Sonja Prosenc, has been selected for CineLink Drama 2026. The North Macedonian–Belgian project is produced by Labina Mitevska through Sisters and Brother Mitevski, together with Entre chien et loup.

As a project in development, Small Yugoslavia should be distinguished from the six completed films presented across the Festival’s screening programmes. Nevertheless, its CineLink Drama selection is an important part of North Macedonia’s overall industry presence, placing a new Macedonian-led audiovisual project before potential international partners, financiers and decision-makers.

North Macedonia will also be represented within the Festival’s professional and institutional structures. Macedonian actress, director and writer Sara Klimoska is a member of the jury of the Competition Programme – Narrative Feature Film. Her participation places a Macedonian film professional directly within the Festival’s principal decision-making body and represents another important recognition of the country’s creative talent.

AZAS at CineLink Industry Days: from creating stories to protecting their authors

An especially significant part of this year’s programme for AZAS will be the CineLink Talks event “Building Stories. Protecting Authorship.”, organised in partnership with the Society of Audiovisual Authors – SAA.

On 20 August, from 11:00 to 12:00, Kiril Gjozev, Secretary General of AZAS, will participate in the panel:

“Authors’ rights, copyright law and collective management: the road to a fair ecosystem.”

The discussion will address a question that remains essential to the future of audiovisual creation in Southeast Europe: how to build an effective copyright infrastructure that does not merely recognise authors’ rights on paper, but protects, enforces and translates those rights into fair remuneration.

Gjozev will participate alongside Gregor Štibernik, Managing Director of AIPA from Slovenia; Lidia Radlińska, Head of Legal and Public Affairs at ZAPA – the Polish Filmmakers Association; and Melina Alagić, member of the Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The panel will be moderated by Cécile Despringre, Secretary General of the SAA.

The discussion will examine the legislation, functioning institutions, approved tariffs and professional collective management organisations required for authors to receive a fair share of the revenues generated through the use of their works. It will also consider the barriers that continue to prevent audiovisual authors in parts of the Western Balkans from enjoying protection comparable to that already available in more developed European systems.

For AZAS, participation in this discussion is particularly relevant. North Macedonia possesses creative talent, active producers, international co-production experience and films capable of entering major regional and international programmes. However, artistic visibility must be accompanied by an operational system that protects the people behind those works.

A film’s selection and public recognition should not mark the end of its relationship with its authors. Whenever that film is broadcast, retransmitted, made available or otherwise commercially used, the authors and other rightsholders must be recognised and fairly remunerated. This is not an additional privilege for the sector; it is part of the basic economic and legal infrastructure of a sustainable audiovisual industry.

The Sarajevo discussion therefore provides AZAS with an opportunity to present both the Macedonian experience and the work still required at home. It also places the national situation within a broader European and regional context, alongside organisations that already demonstrate how effective collective rights management can support authors, cultural diversity and continued investment in new creation.

The Film Agency of North Macedonia in the discussion on artificial intelligence

North Macedonian institutional participation will continue during the second panel, “AI in the film and audiovisual sector: a threat or a tool?”, scheduled for 20 August from 12:00 to 13:00.

Saško Potter Micevski, Director of the Film Agency of North Macedonia, will take part alongside screenwriter and director Sonja Prosenc, producer Joanna Szymańska and Jana Vozárová, Director of the Slovak collective management organisation LITA. The panel will be moderated by Emma Openshaw of Olsberg SPI.

The presence of the Film Agency director is important because artificial intelligence is no longer a distant technological question. It directly concerns original creation, production, employment, financing, cultural policy and the protection of authors and performers. The discussion offers an opportunity for the Macedonian film sector to participate in shaping a balanced approach—one that recognises technological development while preserving human authorship, creative responsibility and fair economic participation.

The consecutive participation of AZAS and the Film Agency in these two discussions creates a meaningful Macedonian institutional presence within CineLink Industry Days. It also brings two connected questions to the same international platform: how North Macedonia supports the creation and production of audiovisual works, and how it protects the rights and professional position of the people who create them.

A presence that should become a foundation for progress

North Macedonia’s participation at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival deserves to be understood as more than a collection of individual appearances. Films with Macedonian participation will be screened across several programmes; Macedonian professionals will contribute to the Festival’s jury and industry discussions; and representatives of AZAS and the Film Agency will speak about some of the most consequential issues facing European audiovisual creation.

This is a strong indication that North Macedonia has the talent, professional knowledge and international connections required to participate seriously in the European audiovisual landscape.

The next step is to ensure that this external recognition is supported by a functional domestic ecosystem: consistent public policy, responsible institutions, sustainable film financing, effective copyright enforcement and an operational collective management system through which audiovisual authors, performers and producers can receive the remuneration that belongs to them.

AZAS welcomes the visibility of Macedonian films and professionals at Sarajevo and remains committed to working with authors, performers, producers, institutions and international partners toward that objective.

Stories must be created, supported and shared. But the people who create them must also be recognised, protected and fairly remunerated. Only when these elements work together can individual festival success become lasting cultural and economic progress for North Macedonian cinema.