The documentary film selection of the 39th Herceg Novi Film Festival – Montenegro Film Festival presents 26 works by authors from around the world, which creatively reflect on contemporary times.
The program in the courtyard of the House of Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić will open on Sunday, August 23, and will bring exciting, thematically diverse films to the audience over five nights, including 24 works competing for the Golden Mimosa, and two more out of competition.
“This year’s selection, it seems to me, is stronger than ever. The world is crooked, its madness and perversity. In front of Andrić’s house, we have gathered Palestine and Ukraine and Bosnia and Kosovo, and global warming and women’s issues, and problems of intersexuality and growing up, and the legacy of colonialism and the erasure of historical memory, and a child’s perspective and digital dreams, and family, alienation, but also love. And much more…”, emphasizes selector, director Vladimir Perović.
As he states, the program focuses on globally relevant topics, with an important mission to encourage the audience to reflect.
“The world is becoming (or has always been) a mad and perverse place. And of course, the documentary follows this madness and perversity. But not just to inform us about madness and perversity, but to creatively reflect on these two things, and to awaken understanding, nobility, and compassion in viewers. And, like all art, to find meaning, light, and goodness at the end of a dark tunnel, even in such a world and reality,” Perović states.
He adds that the awards will be decided by an exceptionally respectable jury, which even the biggest festivals would envy – director and actress Pegah Ahangarani, director Geregin Zakoyan, director and festival programmer Rada Šešić, director of photography Miloš Jaćimović, and journalist Nikola Marković. They will have the difficult task of selecting only one film for the main award from 24 films in competition, with possibly two special recognitions, which will be decided by nuances.
The program will open and close with films that are out of competition. The winner of the main award at the Beldocs festival, SUNSET by Miloš Jaćimović, will be presented to the audience on the first evening, August 23. The film concluding the program on August 27 is THERE WILL BE EVERYTHING – MAESTRO RADOVAN PAPOVIĆ, directed by Čedomir D. Marković.
This year’s documentary film competition program includes:
HEARTBEAT, Jay Rosenblath (USA, 2025)
FUTURE WITHOUT SEA ICE, Adam Sébire (Norway, Greenland, 2025)
THE WELL KEEPER, Bentley Brown, Tahir Ben Mahamat Zene (Chad, 2025)
LIFE DESPITE THEM, Antonia Colodro, Alaa Hathleen (Palestine, 2024, 2025)
CEASEFIRE, Jakob Krese (Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2025)
MEMORIES OF A WINDOW, Amin Pakparvar, Mehraneh Salimian (Iran, USA, Germany, 2026)
PENKELEMES, Onyeka Igwe (Nigeria, UK, 2025)
BLACK CAT, WHITE SHANI, Alemdar Faig Dadashov (Azerbaijan, 2025)
PUOLANKA: HUNT FOR THE CUCKOO, Inka Achté, Einari Paakkanen (Finland, 2026)
NAZUL, Youssef Ghanati (Iran, 2025)
I BELIEVE THE PORTRAIT SAVED ME, Alban Muja (Kosovo, Netherlands, 2025)
30, Marijana Oštrić (Croatia, 2025)
NOTES AND SONGS OF A YOUNGER BROTHER, Đorđe Vojvodić (Montenegro, 2026)
INTERTWINED MEMORIES, Shayma’ Awawdeh (France, Palestine, 2025)
+10K, Gala Hernández López (France, Spain, 2025)
THE RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN, Lisa Mazenauer (Switzerland, 2026)
THE BADGE FILM, Andrés Jurado, María Rojas Arias (Portugal, Colombia, 2026)
LAND, Katarina Radmilović (Serbia, 2025)
CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG, Hao Zhou (Germany, USA, 2025)
WHAT THE MUD WHISPERS?, Dea Tcholokava (Georgia, 2025)
NIGHT SHIFT, Megumi Lim (Ukraine, 2025)
WOMEN OF THE POPULAR FRONT, Ivana Todorović (Serbia, 2025)
CHILAPA GIRL, Juana Lotero López (Colombia, 2025)
SON, Leona Cauklija (Sweden, 2025)
The 39th Herceg Novi Film Festival – Montenegro Film Festival will be held from August 22 to 28, at several locations in Herceg Novi, under the slogan “All Colors of Film”.
All news about the program, films, and guests can be followed on the website, as well as on the Festival’s official Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/filmfestivalhercegnovi ) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/FFHNMFF) pages.
