Aleksandra Božović is a producer by trade and is also studying for a PhD in Filmmaking at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Novi Sad, Serbia. Currently, she is the managing director of the Film Centre of Montenegro, where her second four-year mandate started last December. She is also the country’s Eurimages representative, and the founder and head of the Montenegro Film Rendezvous, unspooling during the Herceg Novi Film Festival. Amidst a rather festive atmosphere, we talked about the successes, achievements and challenges encountered by both the film centre and the industry event.

Cineuropa: What have been the key achievements and the toughest challenges at the Film Centre of Montenegro over the past year?
Aleksandra Božović: After the second edition of the Montenegro Film Rendezvous ended last year, work began in earnest on the amendments and additions to the Law on Cinema. It took us from last October to this June to get it approved in the national parliament. With that law, which we had worked on for years, we have improved the framework significantly. For instance, we lifted the cash rebate to 30+5%, the latter being for shooting in the [less touristic] northern parts of the country. Then there was also the act of strengthening the film centre by making it into a film commission, and transferring the issuing of permits for filming in Montenegro from the Ministry of Culture and Media to the Film Centre of Montenegro. Local governments have also been strengthened through the creation of places designated as film-friendly destinations in each municipality, so that foreign productions with domestic producers that are carrying out the work can obtain permits more easily. In general, creating an efficient film environment is extremely important right now.

What have Montenegrin films achieved recently?
Importantly, this year started with To Hold a Mountain winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, which gave a huge boost to the promotion of Montenegrin cinema. We had been invisible, but then we started to be extremely visible and to get noticed. This continued and will even be the case until the end of the year. We will be the focus country at the Ji.hlava IDFF, in the Industry Days, where Montenegrin projects will have the opportunity to be presented at one of the largest European documentary film festivals. Also, we will be one of the focus countries at FilmFestival Cottbus. Before that, in June, we promoted Montenegrin cinema in Slovenia, and in July, the story continued with Cinehill in Croatia, which was extremely important. We were also the focus country at Golden Apricot in Yerevan.

What’s more, the Ministry of Culture and Media, at the behest of the film centre, signed the Council of Europe Convention on Series Co-production, as one of the first nine countries to do so. And now, this new edition of the Montenegro Film Rendezvous serves as a factor contributing to the festival’s FIAPF accreditation.

This year’s edition of the Montenegro Film Rendezvous seems to have been overhauled. Could you comment on that?
Yes, it is bigger because, alongside the pitching of Montenegrin film projects to an international audience, we have introduced workshops aimed at boosting the production prowess of the production companies and uplifting our cinema as a whole. We have introduced the New African Voices Guest Pitch programme, so Montenegrin filmmakers and producers can gain an insight into how their colleagues from that part of the world do it, what kinds of films they make and so on. Montenegro and its film centre will be partners in the RE-ACT programme together with Italy, Slovenia and Croatia for the next three years. We have also introduced a programme aimed at strengthening the position of female filmmakers through a grant from the French Embassy in Montenegro. Female filmmakers from the West Balkans, Moldova and Armenia now have the opportunity to work with female experts from France, to develop their projects, and then present them to the audience. One more thing relates to Montenegrin actors and talents: they are now in the focus of the ReActing as a Star programme, with which we have been collaborating for the past five years.

Finally, what are your plans for the coming year, between this edition of the event and the next?
Next year will mark the ten-year jubilee anniversary of the Film Centre of Montenegro. I think that, now, we have some healthy foundations to build on, we have made significant progress, from our films being almost “incidental” at film festivals to them being present and visible there, and we are ready for new challenges. Now, it is necessary to maintain and work on strengthening everything that has been set up, and overcome the current challenges in cooperation with both the countries of the region and indeed the entire European film world.

We are still working on the digitalisation of cinemas in Montenegro. We have 16 theatres that are part of the network of independent cinema exhibitors in the country. We are also pressing on with audience development. What’s more, we are working on the development of film literacy together with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture. The film centre was a major party involved in the development of the Film Culture programme, which will be an elective subject in the seventh or eighth grade in primary schools from the next school year on. Our goal is also to promote Montenegro as a film destination with a new cash-rebate programme, develop competitions and implement them, and promote Montenegrin cinema around the world.