This year, the film received the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Three Kilometers to the End of the World / Trei kilometri până la capătul lumii is a gay teenager’s quest to self-discovery shot in one of the most beautiful places in Romania, the Danube Delta, where the protagonist lives with his family in a traditional and isolated community.
The main cast includes Ciprian Chiujdea, Bogdan Dumitrache, Laura Vasiliu, Ingrid Micu-Berescu, Valeriu Andriuță and Adrian Titieni.
The film is a 100% Romanian coproduction produced by Miruna Berescu through Asociația FAMart in coproduction with FAMart Films. It was supported by the Romanian Film Centre (CNC) and also by Publicis Groupe Media Bucharest, MMS Communications Romania and House of Media.
The Bulgarian/Greek black comedy Triumph directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov has been selected as Bulgaria’s candidate for the 97th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award in the Best International Feature Film category.
The decision was unanimously made by a five-member selection committee appointed by the Bulgarian National Film Center.
Written by Kristina Grozeva, Decho Taralezhkov and Petar Valchanov, and inspired by true events, Triumph closes a trilogy started with The Lesson (2014) and Glory (2016), focusing on the 1990 excavations carried out for two years in search of extraterrestrial evidence in the Tsarichina village.
According to the main creative team, the absurd 165 metres long tunnel, world-known as the ‘Tsarichina Hole’, is completing the trilogy on “post-communist absurdities of Bulgaria”.
The cast includes Maria Bakalova, Margita Gisheva, Julian Vergov, Julian Kostov, Stanislav Ganchev and Ivan Slavov.
Triumph was produced by the same team that made The Lesson and Glory: Abraxas Film (Bulgaria) in coproduction with Graal Films (Greece), with support from the Bulgarian National Film Center, Bulgarian National Television (BNT), Greek Film Center, Creative Europe MEDIA, Eurimages and American Foundation for Bulgaria.
Ivona Juka’s sophomore feature Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day / Lijep avečer, lijep dan has been selected by a commission appointed by the Croatian Society of Film Workers as Croatia’s candidate for the 97th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award in the Best International Feature Film category. The film is a coproduction between Croatia, Canada, Poland, Cyprus, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day tells the story of filmmakers in the 1950s, who fought for their freedom and freedom of speech in Yugoslavia, and it stars Emir Hadžihafizbegović, Dado Ćosić, Slaven Došlo, Đorđe Galić and Elmir Krivalić.
It was produced by Anita Juka through 4film in coproduction with Quiet Revolution (Canada), ORKA (Poland), Caretta Films (Cyprus), and DEPO Production (Bosnia and Herzegovina), with support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Creative Europe- MEDIA, the Adris Foundation, Telefilm Canada, the Ontario Creates programme,the Cyprus Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth through its Cinema Advisory Committee, and Sarajevo and Tuzla Canton Film Funds.
Ivona Juka’s debut feature, You Carry Me / Timenenosiš (4film), was also in the running for an Oscar nomination in the International Feature category. It became the first film from the region to be shown on Netflix, being available for viewing by over 135 million people from 190 countries.
Miroslav Lekić’s seventh feature Russian Consul has been selected as Serbia’s contender for the 97th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award in the Best International Feature Film category.
This was the last film for leading actor Žarko Laušević, who died in November 2023. Laušević played a Serbian psychiatrist Ilija Jugović, who goes to Kosovo, under the punishment of the Party, after the death of a patient in Belgrade. There he gets a job as a general practitioner in a local hospital and meets history professor Ljubo Božović, the self-proclaimed “Russian Consul“, an apparently psychiatric patient who claims that soon “Russia will become Russia again, and Kosovo will be Serbian again“.
Russian Consul / Ruski konzul is based on the same-titled bestselling novel by Vuk Drašković.
The cast consists of Serbian, Albanian and North Macedonian actors: Žarko Laušević, Nebojša Dugalić, Paulina Manov, Svetozar Cvetković, Visar Vishka, Danica Radulović, Mensur Shafqiu, Konstantin Fidanov, Petar Zekavica, Meto Jovanovski, Nada Macanković, Slaviša Čurović, Enver Petrovci and Tamara Aleksić.
Telekom Srbija and Vision Team produced the film with support from Film Center Serbia.
Sonja Prosenc’s third feature film Family Therapy has been selected as Slovenia’s candidate for the 97th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award in the Best International Feature Film category. The film is a coproduction between Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Norway and Serbia.
Family Therapy / Porodična terapija follows a seemingly perfect family whose dysfunctional relationships are exposed by an intruder. The dark comedy had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2024 and in August it received the C.I.C.A.E. Award at the 30th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
The film was produced by Monoo, in coproduction with Incipit Film, Wolfgang & Dolly, Incitus Film, Living Pictures, in association with TV Slovenia, ARRI, Storyline and NuFrame. It was supported by the Slovenian Film Centre, Viba Film Studio, TV Slovenia, the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Film Center Serbia, Filmkraft Rogaland Norway, Zefyr Media Fund Norway, ARRI International Programme and Creative Europe MEDIA.
The 2025 Oscars shortlists will be announced on 17 December 2024, the nominations will be unveiled on 17 January 2025 and the Academy Awards ceremony will take place on 2 March 2025.
