Celebrating its second anniversary, the Montenegro Film Rendezvous (23-25 August) took place as part of the overarching framework of the 38th Film Festival Herceg Novi – Montenegro Film Festival (23-29 August), bringing together local and global industries for a packed two days of presentations, master classes and events. The industry platform gave the floor to ten Montenegrin projects in development, two Montenegrin projects in post-production and six regional projects – a new facet this year – that pitched to and received feedback from top experts across the European market.

To learn more about the sophomore edition of the Montenegro Film Rendezvous, we sat down with Aleksandra Božović, head of Industry, who also serves as the director of the Film Centre of Montenegro.

Cineuropa: You wear two hats here as director of the Film Centre of Montenegro and also the head of the industry programme at the Montenegro Film Rendezvous. How do these two roles fit together?
Aleksandra Božović: I have to speak from two perspectives: on one side, as the director of the film centre of a country with a small production capacity, and on the other side, as the director of this industry event that’s part of a national film festival that has existed for 38 years. The Montenegrin film industry is young, and the film centre is also young. We’ve existed for the last eight years and are in our ninth year. It’s important to encourage film representatives from across the whole world to come. Currently, it’s our colleagues from Southeast Europe and Europe more broadly. It means a lot to have representatives from, for instance, the Council of Europe and from big European film companies, to have them see how we develop our small contemporary cinematographic industry and to have them in attendance for two days to focus on Montenegrin cinema. It’s important for us also to encourage our auteurs – producers, directors and screenwriters – to take their projects to industry events around the world. There is a lot going on, but it’s amazing when you see how people respond. It gives me the strength to handle it all at once.

This year marks the second edition of the Montenegro Film Rendezvous. What is most important to you when it comes to gauging the success of the event?
It’s important to give projects the chance to be shown, and to find sales agents, distributors and a way to access film festivals. It is a long road from the beginning to the end, and when we support projects through different phases, I think that is the most important thing. We hope to receive good feedback from our guests from abroad as well as from our representatives in the Montenegrin film industry, whom we hope feel satisfied with the event. We don’t have the biggest of aspirations [in terms of size], but we have support from the Ministry of Culture and the local municipality to support this kind of initiative.

What do you see as the greatest strengths of the Montenegrin film industry? What do you think Montenegro brings to the European and global film stage?
My opinion is that Montenegro has [an incredible amount of] faith and desire to produce. We provide a good environment in which to produce new projects and new cinema. When we work together as a public institution [ie, the film centre], which provides support every year, it’s especially important in this period of instability – not only in our region, but also in the whole of Europe and around the world. When you give them this stability, they feel like they can produce. That feeling runs both ways as well – it’s a two-way street. Everybody gains satisfaction from this. We provide a kind of stability and enthusiasm to open up, renovate and bring new life to European cinema.

Many of the projects that are being presented at this industry platform are at the early stages of development, as opposed to in production or post-production. Was there a particular strategy in this breakdown of works in progress?
At the first edition, we had 20 projects. Twelve were in the development phase, and eight were in post-production. But this is what we produce in one year in Montenegro, so this is what we presented. These are the new projects in both phases, which make up the small market and represent our small film industry. However, the impact of our event is huge because we are presenting what we produce altogether across the entire year. That’s why the projects this year are what they are – it is a natural process.