Kustendorf gears up for its 18th edition
by Olivia Popp
- The Serbian gathering, unspooling from 22-25 January, welcomes new talents and celebrates the anniversaries of festival founder Emir Kusturica’s two Palme d’Or winners

Kicking off in just a few days’ time is the 18th edition of the Kustendorf Film and Musical Festival (22-25 January), held in Mećavnik (also known as Kustendorf), Mokra Gora, Serbia – a town originally built as a set for Life Is a Miracle by famed Serbian filmmaker, and the festival’s founder, Emir Kusturica. The gathering has now released the full line-up for this year’s lively programme, which is once again structured around exchange and interplay between emerging and experienced artists. The festival has previously hosted renowned guests including Paolo Sorrentino, Ruben Östlund, Monica Bellucci, Jim Jarmusch, Gael García Bernal and others as part of its lens on acclaimed artists.
This year’s competition programme boasts 16 short films selected from over 500 submissions vying for the festival’s Golden, Silver and Bronze Eggs as well as for the Vilko Filač Award for Best Film Photography. Per festival tradition, this section has a focus on works by film students, self-taught filmmakers and up-and-coming artists. The competition awards will be decided upon by an international jury consisting of Serbian film actress and theorist Ksenija Zelenović, and Italian directors Edoardo De Angelis and Giacomo Abbruzzese, while the Vilko Filač Award will be handed out by two directors of photography: Michel Amathieu from France and Vladan Radović from Italy.
Three films by directors from Serbia, three from Mexico and four from Russia make up the bulk of the competition, rounded off by six movies from six countries. The selected short films from Serbia are 5/3/0 by Danilo Stanimirović, August by Dan Grabnar and Forty by Adem Tutić; from Mexico come Castaways by Andrea Saavedra de la Teja, Passarinho by Natalia García Agraz and The Incredible Summer of Jesús by Sebastián Díaz Barriga. The Russian selections include Demons, Demons, Demons by Egor Schirenko, Not Just Any Day by Klavdiya Korshunova, Possession by Sofia Chigirova and The Forest: A Little Tragedy by Oleg Yershov. The other six films are Amir Youssef's Dawn Every Day (Egypt), Agnes Rachel Trier’s Hex (Denmark), Jane Spasik's Names (North Macedonia), Marie Caudry’s The Bear and the Bird (France), Milorda Milatović’s The Stranger (Croatia) and Varun Tandon's Thursday Special (India).
The Contemporary Tendencies strand will open with Long Fei’s G for Gap, also known as Gold or Shit, which won Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for star Hong Yue at the 2024 Beijing International Film Festival. The second day will bring a screening of the 2024 Venice Orizzonti Award winner The New Year That Never Came [+see also:
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interview: Bogdan Mureşanu
film profile] by Bogdan Mureşanu, who previously won the festival’s Golden Egg. The event’s last two days feature Tunisian director Mehdi Barsaoui’s Aïcha [+see also:
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film profile], Indian helmer Karan Tejpal’s Stolen and US director Sean Baker’s Anora, as introduced by the film’s actor Yuri Borisov.
Kustendorf’s Retrospective of Greatness selection is dedicated to Cannes Film Festival winners and celebrates the anniversaries of two Palme d’Or winners by Kusturica himself: the 40th anniversary of When Father Was Away on Business and the 30th for Underground. Dedicated to artists who are returnees to the festival, the New Authors section will screen the documentaries America by jury member Abbruzzese (a former Golden Egg winner) and The Last K.O. [+see also:
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film profile] by Timothée Catherine as well as the narrative feature Another German Tank Story by Jannis Alexander Kiefer (a former Silver Egg winner).
The 18th Kustendorf is organised by production company Rasta International under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia and Mećavnik Grad.
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