Manaki Brothers Film Festival


The International Cinematographers Film Festival "Manaki Brothers" is an annual international film festival organized by the Macedonian Film Professionals Association. The festival is held in Bitola, the town where most of the activities of the Aromanian brothers Yanaki and Milton Manaki were organized. They were the filmmakers, who in 1905 filmed in Avdela the first motion pictures in the Ottoman Balkans. Each year the festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Macedonia and the President of North Macedonia. The award of the festival is Camera 300 that given to the year's best motion pictures chosen by the festival's film committee. The Manaki Film Festival has been hosted at the Center of culture, with screenings at the Big Hall, located in the center of Bitola and has been attended by celebrities such as Michael York, Charles Dance, Victoria Abril, Daryl Hannah, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Julliette Binoche, Aleksei Serebryakov, Bruno Ganz, Claudia Cardinale, Fatih Akin.

Golden Camera 300 for life achievement

Before 1993 the festival did not have a director, the function was introduced in 1993.
  • Boris Nonevski 1993–1995
  • Gorjan Tozija 1995–1995
  • Delcho Mihajlov 1996–1998
  • Vladimir Atanasov 1998–2001
  • Tomi Salkovski 2001–2009
  • Labina Mitevska 2009–2014
  • Dimitar Nikolov 2015–2015
  • Blagoja Kunovski 2016–2018
  • Evgenija Teodosievska 2018–2020
  • Simeon Damevski 2021–?

    Main competition jury

  • 1995 – Dick Pope, Ron Holloway, Stole Popov
  • 1996 – Marcel Martin
  • 1997 – Zivko Zalar, Simon Perry, Deborah Young
  • 1998 – Morten Bruus, Sergei Astakhov, Martin Langer
  • 2000 – Jaromír Sofr, Jacek Petrycki, John Christian Rosenlund, Jan Hintjens, Ivo Trajkov
  • 2001 – Andreas Hoffer, Dominique Bax, Éric Guichard, Aleksandr Bashirov, Dejan Dukovski
  • 2002 – Robby Müller, Alain Marcoen, Ronald Bergan, Jan Weincke, Antonio Mitrikeski
  • 2003 – Willy Kurant, Olinka Vistica, Gábor Medvigy, António Costa
  • 2004 – César Charlone, Rosanna Seregni, Andreas Fischer-Hansen, Roi Jean, Umberto Rossi
  • 2009 – Peter Suschitzky, Slobodan Šijan, Yuri Klimenko, Minas Bakalčev
  • 2010 – Vilmos Zsigmond, Pawel Pawlinkowski, Dominique Fury, Natasha Braier, Darko Mitrevski, Christine Dollhofer
  • 2011 – Dante Spinotti, Eva Zaoralova, Goce Smilevski, Nigel Walters, Martin Schweighofer
  • 2012 – Fred Kelemen, Miladin Colakovic, Damjan Kozole, Ilija Penushliski, Virgine Saint Martin
  • 2013 – Jose Luis Alcaine, Amnon Zalait, Bojidar Manov, Elma Tataragic, Dejan Dukovski
  • 2014 – Giora Bejach, Rebekah Tolley, Srdjan Dragojevic, Simon Tansek, Lazar Sekulovski
  • 2015 – Božidar Nikolić, Ryszard Lenczewski, Mitko Panov, Hayet Benkara, Ercan Kesal
  • 2016 – Phedon Papamichael, Claire Pijman, Alin Taşçıyan, Gökhan Tiryaki, Vladimir Samoilovski
  • 2017 – Paul René Roestad, Luca Coassin, Darijan Pejovski, Jani-Petteri Passi, Erol Zubčević
  • 2018 – Olympia Mytilinaiou, Rainer Klausmann, Mattias Troelstrup, Rebecca Fayyad Palud, Gjorce Stavreski
  • 2019 – Edward Lachman, Kaloyan Bozhilov, Dominique Welinski, Fejmi Daut, Nenad Dukic
  • 2021 – Phillip Bergson, Wim Vanacker, Suki Medencevic, Sonja Prosenc, Dimo Popov
  • 2022 – Jean-Marie Dreujou, Melisa Sözen, Carlos R. Diazmuñoz, Maja Bogojević, Samir Ljuma
  • 2023 – Daria D’Antonio, Peter Biziou, Teona Strugar Mitevska, Romain Lacourbas, Domenico La Porta
  • 2024 – John Seale, Agnès Godard, Cevahir Şahin, Birgit Guðjónsdóttir, Vladimir Blazevski

    World, regional and national film premiers

  • 2004: "The Great Water" – National Premiere
  • 2005: "Contact" – World Premiere
  • 2006: "The Secret Book" – World Premiere
  • 2010: "Mothers" – National premiere
  • 2012: "The Third Half" – World Premiere
  • 2012: "Balkan Is Not Dead" – World Premiere
  • 2013: "The Piano Room" – World Premiere
  • 2014: "To the Hilt" – World Premiere
  • 2014: "Children of the Sun" – World Premiere
  • 2015: "Lazar" – World Premiere
  • 2016: "The Liberation of Skopje" – National Premiere
  • 2016: "Golden five" – World Premiere
  • 2021: "Sisterhood" – National Premiere
  • 2022: "Snow White Dies at the End – National Premiere
  • 2023: "Housekeeping for beginners" – National Premiere
  • 2023: "Lena and Vladimir" – World Premiere