U30 Film Festival

U30 Film Festival

U30 Film Festival (Under 30 Film Festival) is a new international short film festival, whose first edition will take place from 4 to 7 June 2026 at Dom omladine Beograda. It is dedicated to young filmmakers and the short film form, created with the desire to provide space for a new generation of creators whose voices are only now entering the contemporary film and cultural scene. The festival’s name refers to two key program criteria — films no longer than 30 minutes and authors under 30 years of age.

However, given that film is a collective art and every film is created through the work of many authors and collaborators, the festival does not require that all crew members be under 30. It is sufficient that the project authorship belongs 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 a total of 11 films from Serbia, Montenegro, Spain, Ukraine and Poland within the competition program. The competition 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, Q&A sessions with the attending authors are planned, giving the audience the chance to learn more about the making of the films, creative processes and the themes they address.

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

U30 Film Festival is born from the conviction that the future of film belongs to new generations of authors and that it is important to create a space where their ideas can be seen and recognized. Some of the authors whose films we will screen this year are at the beginning of their careers, but among them one can already recognize 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 Beograda.

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

PROGRAM

THURSDAY, 4 JUNE

COMPETITION PROGRAM

Screenings start: 20:00

• "THE END OF THE WORLD"
  Director: Majda Ranitović
  Country: Serbia
  Year of production: 2025
  Duration: 22 minutes
  Synopsis: Marko (9), faced with the news of a possible End of the World, overcomes his fear in a struggle to preserve the affection of his best friend Sara.

• "THE RIVER"
  Director: Uglješa Ranisavljević
  Country: Serbia
  Year of production: 2024
  Duration: 30 minutes
  Synopsis: Mirko suffers from nightmares as 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 their kind neighbor Jova. As the relationship between Mirko’s mother and Jova deepens, Mirko’s disapproval of it becomes more aggressive and his lack of self-control worsens his relationship with his mother. The situation changes when Mirko’s childhood friend Marina comes to the village for summer vacation. The emotions that arise between them seem to fill the emptiness in Mirko’s heart left by his father’s death. After new life experiences, Mirko begins to see his mother with understanding.

• "FATHER MEANS DAD, RIGHT?"
  Director: Anja Kečalović
  Country: Montenegro
  Year of production: 2025
  Duration: 13 minutes
  Synopsis: When Janja (30) decides to spend a weekend with her father Momir (60) — a man she hasn’t seen for years — they both discover that love requires more than emotion; it requires the courage to confront and expand the limits of one’s heart.

• "DON'T THEY KNOW IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD?"
  (¿Acaso no saben que es el fin del mundo?)
  Director: André Mileti
  Country: Spain
  Year of production: 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, leading them to confront deep existential consequences.

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FRIDAY, 5 JUNE

COMPETITION PROGRAM

Screenings start: 20:00

• "LOVE PASSES, TRAUMA NEVER"
  Director: Veljko Petrović
  Country: Serbia
  Year of production: 2025
  Duration: 21 minutes
  Synopsis: Important life moments that significantly influenced the development of the film’s main character, the director.

• "DON'T GET MAD, MAN"
  Director: David Denić
  Country: Serbia
  Year of production: 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 an awkward angler who desperately wants to pass his driving test, an unexpected friendship forms, leading them both to lessons they never anticipated.

• "WHERE WERE YOU, ZEKO?"
  Director: Petar Đuraković
  Country: Serbia
  Year of production: 2024
  Duration: 23 minutes
  Synopsis: Zeko, a talented but impulsive student, reunites with his friends one evening. Whether he can repay his debt, due the next day, depends on their help.

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SATURDAY, 6 JUNE

COMPETITION PROGRAM

Screenings start: 18:00

• "WOVEN"
  Director: Miloš Živanović
  Country: Serbia
  Year of production: 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 various comforts and pleasures are offered to him after his release, Miša rejects these temptations. Driven by the search for truth and freedom, he embarks on a dangerous journey to discover the secrets of his powers and regain control of his life.

• "YOUR HOME IS MY HOME"
  (YOUR HOME IS MY HOME)
  Director: Denys Kireiev
  Country: Ukraine
  Year of production: 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 odd 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 movement with disturbing precision. As the distance between them slowly closes, the boundaries between inner and outer space — safety and invasion of privacy — begin to blur.

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

• "THE BOY WITH RED EARS"
  (El niño de orejas rojas)
  Director: María Lucía Suárez Barbery
  Country: Spain
  Year of production: 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. Seeing her helplessness and fragility, his excitement vanishes, as if the air suddenly has no taste. Unaware of what is happening, he does not know that a disease has crept 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, overcome by sorrow and unease, curls up in his bed, convinced he must find that bush in the nearby woods. But while he dreams of growing up, the fire consumes everything around him.

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SUNDAY, 7 JUNE

SPECIAL PROGRAM

Screenings start: 20:00

• DANILO STANIMIROVIĆ – RETROSPECTIVE OF SHORT FICTION FILMS
  Danilo Stanimirović graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Digital Arts from FMK and a master’s degree in Film and TV Directing from 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 VAC collective, with which he organizes and mentors the International School of Visual Anthropology in Požarevac. He has experience working as a festival selector, sitcom director and commercial director.

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

• "5/3/0"
  Director: Danilo Stanimirović
  Country: Serbia
  Year of production: 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 night at a friend’s birthday party, she is forced to return home with a frightening taxi driver who insists she sit in the front passenger seat next to him.

• "CATS"
  Director: Danilo Stanimirović
  Country: Serbia
  Year of production: 2025
  Duration: 14 minutes
  Synopsis: Quiet boy Miša finds an abandoned kitten on the street. Neglected by his parents, he is left to learn how to cope with life on his own, relying on the only relationship he manages to form — his friendship with the kitten.

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