Skopje, 10 August 2023 (MIA) – The 14th edition of the MakeDox Creative Documentary Film Festival is set to be held on August 17-24 in Skopje, with a special focus on film editing. The festival’s lineup will feature 75 documentary films. Florian Heinzen-Ziob’s film “Dancing Pina” will open the festival, with Agnieszka Zwiefka’s film “Vika!” serving as its closer.  

“As part of the festival, several documentary films will be screened which were a part of the most renowned and prestigious festivals in Europe and in the world. Including the films of Serbian director Mila Turajlić - ‘Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels’ and ‘Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels’,” said Petrula Veljanovska, who is a part of the festival’s programming team, at a press conference Thursday.

Veljanovska said that Macedonian films will be screened at the festival as well, such as Petra Seliškar’s film “Body”, which, she said, is a Macedonian-Slovenian-French-Croatian co-production and will have its global premiere soon in Sarajevo.

The country in focus at this year’s MakeDox is Denmark, and the festival will also screen older Danish documentary films.

“It is no coincidence that we chose Denmark to be the country in focus this year, considering that film editing is at the focus of the festival, and the Danish documentary films are renowned for being perfectly edited. This year, together with the Danish Film Institute, we selected 12 documentary feature films to screen at MakeDox,” said Veljanovska.

Sara Ferro, coordinator of the MakeKoProDox Forum, said at the press conference that this year’s festival will also include two masterclasses, the first one with Croatian film editor Vladimir Gojun, and the second one with Serbian director Mila Turajlić.

The festival’s director, Darko Nabakov, spoke about the “Doc Around Europe” network which was established two years ago, with MakeDox as once of its founders. Nabokov said they are launching the “Doc Generation” project with the network this year, as a two-year project aimed at promoting new young creators at five festivals.

Nabokov added that this year’s festival will also include five award categories. The “Onion” main award for best documentary film, “Young Onion” award for films by young filmmakers, “Sliced Onion” award for short films, as well as the student award and the award for best ethical ideas. He stressed that the festival will have an international jury of 15 members, with three per each category.

Photo: MIA, printscreen