PODGORICA: Cinemas in Montenegro are open but after being closed for months during the pandemic they face a rough ride on the road to recovery.

PODGORICA: The long documentary I Was 10 by Velibor Covic and the short fiction film Rainbow by Aleksandar Vujovic are gaining recognition abroad, although very few feature films were completed in Montenegro in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

PODGORICA: Film Centre of Montenegro and the University of Montenegro have signed an agreement for the formation of the Student Film Fund. They will both contribute to financing the production of films from the third, fourth and fifth years of studies, made by students from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje.

PODGORICA: The budget of the Film Centre of Montenegro has been increasing each year since its establishment at the end of 2016. In 2020 the budget of the Film Centre of Montenegro increased to 1.4 m EUR, which is less than the planned 40% increase compared to 2019’s budget of 1.2 m EUR and 950,000 EUR in 2018.

PODGORICA: Besa 2, a continuation of one of the most successful and popular Balkan TV series, has completed the Montenegrin shoot for its second season, which began in the autumn of 2020. Besa is the only regional series with a planned remake for the Arabic-speaking audience, with more than 400 million spectators, and has redefined regional TV series production standards.

PODGORICA: The 5th edition of the Podgorica Film Festival will be held from 15 to 20 December 2020 on the first VoD platform in Montenegro. It will open with the multi-awarded coproduction Father by Srdan Golubovic, featuring the highly acclaimed regional actor Goran Bogdan.

PODGORICA: The Montenegrin/Serbian full-length documentary Djina, directed by Sara Stijovic, received a 20,000 EUR grant from Film Center Serbia. It was one of eight projects receiving grants in the minority production category, out of 43 projects submitted.

PODGORICA: Zoran Zivkovic, director of the Herceg-Novi Film Festival died unexpectedly of Covid-19 on 17 November 2020. His death was a shock to Montenegrin film institutions and film professionals, with whom he had strong connections through his positions as a festival director and a producer.

PODGORICA: The Montenegrin/Serbian coproduction The Face of Honour / Djeca (working title), directed by Nikola Vukcevic, has recently wrapped shooting in Montenegro. The film, with a screenplay by Ana Vujadinovic and Melina Pota Koljevic, stars Albanian actor Edon Rizvanolli.

PODGORICA: The 2020 edition of the 6th Seanema film festival will distribute the short documentary Solcinj, made by its third year group of Young Film Producers, in early December.