U30 Film Festival

U30 Film Festival

U30 Film Festival (Under 30 Film Festival) is a new international short film festival that will hold its first edition from 4 to 7 June 2026 at Dom omladine in Belgrade. It is dedicated to young filmmakers and the short film form, and was created with the aim of providing space for a new generation of creators whose voices are just entering the contemporary film and cultural scene. The festival’s name refers to two key criteria of the program — films with a runtime not exceeding 30 minutes and authors younger than 30 years old.

However, given that film is a collective art form and every film is the result of the work of many authors and collaborators, the festival does not require that all crew members be under 30. It is enough that the project belongs authorially to the younger generation of creators, meaning that among the key authors of the film there are young film professionals and artists.

During the first three festival days the audience will have the opportunity to see, within the competitive program, a total of 11 films from Serbia, Montenegro, Spain, Ukraine and Poland. The competitive program includes fiction, documentary and animated films of various genres and approaches, offering insight into the diversity of contemporary short film and the interests of the new generation of authors.

A special value of the festival is the direct encounter between authors and the audience. After the screenings, conversations with the attending authors are planned, giving the audience a chance to learn more about the making of the films, creative processes and the topics they address.

On the final, fourth festival evening a showcase program dedicated to the young director Danilo Stanimirović, a member of the jury of the first edition of the festival, will be shown, after which the best film of the festival will be announced and awarded by the professional jury, which also includes Marija Vukić, screenwriter, director and producer, and Vuk Savić, festival director.

U30 Film Festival was born out of the conviction that the future of film belongs to new generations of authors and that it is important to create a space in which their ideas can be seen and recognized. Some of the filmmakers whose films we will watch this year are at the beginning of their careers, but among them one can recognize the future significant names of regional and world cinematography.

The organizer of U30 Film Festival is Afilmacija – Studio za proizvodnju kinematografskih dela, led by founder Vuk Savić, in cooperation with Dom omladine.

Admission to all festival programs is free. Due to the limited capacity of the hall, visitors must collect free passes, which will be available in the central hall of Dom omladine in Belgrade one hour before the start of each day’s program.

PROGRAM

THURSDAY, JUNE 4

COMPETITIVE PROGRAM

Screenings start: 20:00

• "SMAK SVETA"
  Directed by: Majda Ranitović
  Country: Serbia
  Year: 2025
  Duration: 22 minutes
  Synopsis: Marko (9), faced with news of a possible End of the World, overcomes fear in his fight to preserve the affection of his best friend Sara.

• "REKA"
  Directed by: Uglješa Ranisavljević
  Country: Serbia
  Year: 2024
  Duration: 30 minutes
  Synopsis: Mirko has nightmares because he cannot cope with the loss of his father who recently passed away. Mirko’s mother Vesna struggles as a single parent but increasingly finds help and friendly support in the kind neighbor Jova. As the relationship between Mirko’s mother and neighbor Jova deepens, Mirko’s disapproval of that relationship becomes more aggressive and his lack of self-control worsens his relationship with his mother. The situation changes when Mirko’s childhood friend Marina arrives in the village for summer break. The emotions that arise between the two seem to fill the emptiness in Mirko’s heart caused by his father’s death. After new life experiences, Mirko begins to see his mother with understanding.

• "OTAC ZNAČI TATA, ZAR NE?"
  Directed by: Anja Kečalović
  Country: Montenegro
  Year: 2025
  Duration: 13 minutes
  Synopsis: When Janja (30) decides to spend the weekend with her father Momir (60) — a man she hasn’t seen for years — both discover that love requires more than emotions; it demands courage to face and expand the limits of one’s own heart.

• "ZAR NE ZNAJU DA JE KRAJ SVETA?"
  (¿Acaso no saben que es el fin del mundo?)
  Directed by: André Mileti
  Country: Spain
  Year: 2025
  Duration: 15 minutes
  Synopsis: Two young people on a date realize that their life circumstances prevent them from ever having a serious relationship. They decide to create a fantasy in which they are a married couple, which leads them to confront deep existential consequences.

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FRIDAY, JUNE 5

COMPETITIVE PROGRAM

Screenings start: 20:00

• "LJUBAV PROĐE, TRAUMA NIKAD"
  Directed by: Veljko Petrović
  Country: Serbia
  Year: 2025
  Duration: 21 minutes
  Synopsis: Important life moments that significantly influenced the development of the film’s main character, the director.

• "NE LJUTI SE, ČOVEČE"
  Directed by: David Denić
  Country: Serbia
  Year: 2024
  Duration: 30 minutes
  Synopsis: A hot-tempered driving instructor with a heart condition is advised to take up fishing to calm his nerves, but when his path crosses with a clumsy angler who desperately wants to pass his driving test, an unexpected friendship forms, leading them both to lessons they never expected.

• "GDE SI TI BIO, ZEKO?"
  Directed by: Petar Đuraković
  Country: Serbia
  Year: 2024
  Duration: 23 minutes
  Synopsis: Zeka, a talented but impulsive student, finds his friends during an evening. Whether he can repay his debt, due tomorrow, depends on their help.

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SATURDAY, JUNE 6

COMPETITIVE PROGRAM

Screenings start: 18:00

• "SATKANI"
  Directed by: Miloš Živanović
  Country: Serbia
  Year: 2025
  Duration: 30 minutes
  Synopsis: Miša, a young man with powerful telekinetic abilities, is trapped in a dark experiment where he is subjected to manipulation and abuse. Although after his release he is offered various comforts and pleasures, Miša rejects those temptations. Driven by a search for truth and freedom, he embarks on a dangerous journey to uncover the secrets of his powers and regain control of his life.

• "TVOJA KUĆA JE I MOJA KUĆA"
  (YOUR HOME IS MY HOME)
  Directed by: Denys Kireiev
  Country: Ukraine
  Year: 2025
  Duration: 7 minutes
  Synopsis: A young woman arrives at a peaceful country house she rented to spend some time alone. While filming a casual video tour for a friend, she notices an unusual man standing at the edge of the woods, silently watching her. When she tries to approach and confront him, the man begins to imitate her every move with disturbing precision. As the distance between them slowly decreases, the boundaries between inner and outer space — safety and violation of privacy — begin to blur.

• "BREATHLESS"
  Directed by: Marta Socha
  Country: Poland
  Year: 2024
  Duration: 27 minutes
  Synopsis: A young woman with a rare disease learns there is a cure for her abroad. She decides to leave her family and embark on a journey to fight for her own survival.

• "DEČAK SA CRVENIM UŠIMA"
  (El niño de orejas rojas)
  Directed by: María Lucía Suárez Barbery
  Country: Spain
  Year: 2025
  Duration: 13 minutes
  Synopsis: In a corner of the forest, a boy plays and learns to whistle among the trees and parrots. He grows up. One day he discovers fire and runs home to tell his mother. But seeing her helplessness and fragility, his excitement fades, as if the air suddenly has no taste. Unaware of what is happening, he does not know that illness has hovered over their home. His mother, with a quiet and exhausted voice, takes his hand and, sitting by the fire, tells him about a bush that burns but does not burn; one that gives life instead of destroying it. The boy, consumed by sorrow and restlessness, curls up in his bed, convinced he must find that bush in the nearby forest. But as he dreams of growing up, the fire ravages everything around him.

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SUNDAY, JUNE 7

SHOWCASE PROGRAM

Screenings start: 20:00

• DANILO STANIMIROVIĆ – RETROSPECTIVE OF SHORT FICTION FILMS
  Danilo Stanimirović graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Digital Arts at FMK and a master’s degree in Film and TV Directing at FDU. His short films have been screened at festivals around the world. He is the founder of the Požarevac Film Festival POFF and co-founder of the production company 3FILM. He is part of the collective VAC with which he organizes and mentors the International School of Visual Anthropology in Požarevac. He has experience working as a festival selector, and as a director of sitcoms and commercials.

• "BAMBILEND"
  Directed by: Danilo Stanimirović
  Country: Serbia
  Year: 2019
  Duration: 22 minutes
  Synopsis: Strahinja has just finished acting school and works as a clown in a children’s playroom. Bambiland was a large amusement park in his hometown that was open when he was a child. Today it is an abandoned and eerie place that, as such, serves as a metaphor for Strahinja’s generation in Serbia.

• "5/3/0"
  Directed by: Danilo Stanimirović
  Country: Serbia
  Year: 2023
  Duration: 16 minutes
  Synopsis: During the night, a teenage girl takes a taxi to a neighboring town. After a disturbing ride and an even more unpleasant evening at her friend’s birthday party, she is forced to return home with a frightening taxi driver who insists she sit in the passenger seat beside him.

• "MAČKE"
  Directed by: Danilo Stanimirović
  Country: Serbia
  Year: 2025
  Duration: 14 minutes
  Synopsis: The quiet boy Miša finds an abandoned kitten on the street. Since his parents neglect him, he is left to learn how to navigate life on his own, relying on the only relationship he manages to build — a friendship with the kitten.

After the screening there will be a short conversation with Danilo Stanimirović about his authorship and film work. Following the talk, the jury’s award for the best film of the festival will be presented.