About

DokuFest Industry: No Polished Lines, Just Real Talk

There was no blueprint. No glossy “industry” master plan. Just years of endless conversations, reshaping the way we talk about cinema, activism, and art. In post-pandemic 2021, with filmmaker Dea Gjinovci we began to twist the traditional “talks section” into something that felt alive. Something that didn’t bow to conventional jargon. That’s how DokuTalks happened: a place where filmmakers, activists, and scholars cut through the noise and swap stories that actually matter.

This year’s talks orbit around one stubborn idea: RESISTANCE. Whether it’s women rewriting narratives of war and peace, artists confronting silence and numbness, or filmmakers facing a system that undervalues short films, each talk dives into same topic fighting back, creating, and enduring. Our DokuTalks don’t aim for polite consensus; they open cracks. They challenge how we watch, how we remember, and how we claim public spaces that are shrinking fast. Together, they sketch a map of filmmaking that’s as much about survival as it is or filmmaking craft that we are passionate about.

Last year, we pushed this ethos even further. With a support from the Swedish Embassy, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, and in partnership with film centres of Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia, DokuFest cracked open a new space – the first Short Film Forum. New, raw, and regional, with one purpose: to back emerging voices from the Balkans who are tired of waiting for permission to tell their stories.

Working with Jing Haase, a short film expert with over twenty years at Nordisk Panorama and the Swedish Film Institute, we’re less about reinventing the wheel and more about building a space where short films can grow, connect, and find their audience.

Eight film projects stood up this year. Next year, we plan to include projects from across the Western Balkans, Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey making the Short Film Forum the short form destination for all emerging voices in the Balkans.

This isn’t about appearances or chasing trends. It’s about making filmmaking a real career path here in the region: something sustainable, not just a dream – and as outlined in our strategic vision. It’s about holding onto the same stubborn energy that built DokuFest from the ground up, driven by the belief that film can shape culture, reclaim public space, and push young voices forward.

Eroll Bilibani
Head of Dokulab at DokuFest