The Herceg Novi Film Festival – Montenegro Film Festival has unveiled the programme for its 39th edition, which will take place from 22-28 August under the motto “All the Colours of Film”. Earlier this year, the gathering received accreditation from the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), recognising its long-standing development and the quality of its programming.

Actor Bogdan Diklić, this year’s recipient of the Milan Žmukić Award for outstanding contribution to film art, will officially open the festival. The first evening will see the out-of-competition screening of Home by Montenegrin-born director and actress Marijana Janković at the Kanli Kula fortress. The gathering will close with Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić’s To Hold a Mountain, winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Best International Documentary at Sundance.

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Ten films will compete for the Golden Mimosa in the Feature Film Competition, as selected by journalist and critic Vuk Perović. Slovenia is represented by Miha Hočevar’s Hidden People and Urška Menart’s Everything That’s Wrong with You. Three Serbian titles are in the running: 3 Weeks After by Miroslav Terzić, No Fairy Dust by Maja Miloš and Our Father by Goran Stanković.

North Macedonia also contributes three flicks: Teona Strugar Mitevska’s Mother, Kosara Mitić’s 17 and Dina Duma’s Skateboarding Is Not for Girls. The selection is rounded off by Croatian filmmaker Igor Jelinović’s Honey Bunny and Montenegrin director Bojan Stijović’s Black Trumpet. The competition jury comprises Alissa Simon, Elena Kristodoulidou, Sebastian Cavazza, Ljiljana Blagojević and Draško Dragutin Đurov.

Beyond the main competition, the festival will spread across five venues. The Documentary Film Selection, curated by Vladimir Perović, comprises 26 titles, of which 24 will compete for the Golden Mimosa. Meanwhile, 30 student films from academies across the region will screen at Mića Pavlović Square.

The Herceg Novi – Series programme, introduced last year, will offer previews of upcoming regional television productions, including Rock Me Gently, Pupin, The Home Resort and The Vault. Forte Mare fortress will host European films presented through the Adriatic Region Festival Network as well as New African Voices, a new strand dedicated to contemporary African cinema.

The professional programme will once again revolve around the Montenegro Film Rendezvous, now in its third edition. Organised by the Film Centre of Montenegro in partnership with the festival, it will connect filmmakers, producers and decision makers while hosting the Female Filmmakers workshop, ReActing+, EAVE on Demand RE-ACT activities, Creative Europe – MEDIA discussions, master classes and an Info Day devoted to television-series development.