Skopje, 11 December 2025 (MIA) — Tamara Kotevska's documentary "The Tale of Silyan" (2025), this year's Macedonian candidate for the Academy Awards, has made the list of 2025 Documentary Motion Picture nominees for the 37th Annual Producers Guild Awards organized by the Producers Guild of America.

"The Tale of Silyan" is one of the seven nominees for the PGA's Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures award.

According to the production team, the Oscar-nominated director of "Honeyland" and the cinematographer Jean Dakar spent three years shooting the documentary in extreme conditions, "sleeping in landfills in an RV, spending days and nights with the protagonists and local communities, waiting for a long time on storks and their migrations and working without a formal budget or traditional production infrastructure."

"The PGA has recognized Tamara Kotevska and Jean Dakar's resilience, creative courage and sacrifice in that process," producers said in a press release, adding that the film's authors were "role models of total filmmaking."

"This award nomination can be understood only by those who truly live the film," Kotevska and Dakar are quoted as saying in the release.

The release also said their approach to documentary filmmaking was unobtrusive and built on trust, time and human closeness.

"The Tale of Silyan" has already won the Best Feature Documentary and Best Cinematography awards at the 41st Annual International Documentary Association Awards, after being screened at some of the world’s largest festivals. 

The film has also been nominated for the Cinema Eye Honors Audience Choice Prize. The winners are decided by viewers who cast their votes online through Dec. 16, producers said, inviting the nation to vote for the Macedonian documentary.

The Oscars shortlist will be announced on Dec. 16 and the final five nominees in each category will be announced on Jan. 22.

Kotevska's film was acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films, which has described it as "a poignant and visually arresting story set in the heart of rural Macedonia." mr/