The 83rd edition of the International Film Festival in Venice ended with the awards ceremony, where Serbian cinematography was present with three productions in different festival programs. The most successful was the Italian-Serbian co-production Balkanika, the debut feature film of the Italian director Nicola Sorcinelli, which won the audience award and the award for best debut film within the Days of Authors program (Giornate degli Autori).
The film follows two musicians from Afghanistan who, at a time when music is banned in their country, take the Balkan route in search of a new beginning. Matilda De Angelis stars alongside Babak Karimi, Ivar Vafaei and Giovanni Toscano.
Balkanika was entirely shot in Serbia, mostly in the area of Sjenica and the Pešter Plateau, with the participation of a local film crew. Balkanika is a production of the Italian companies Nightswim and Wildside, a company from the Fremantle Group, in co-production with the Serbian company This and That Productions. The producers of the film are Ines Vasiljević and Stefano Sardo, while the Serbian co-producers are Snežana van Houwelingen and Milica Putnik Lukovac. The film was supported by the Film Center Serbia competition for co-financing the production of minority co-productions.
Two more films with Serbian films participated program in Venice – Untile the Day Ends by director Jelena Maksimović was shown in the program Orizzonti, while the film I Plant My Hand In the Garden by the author duo of Boris Hadžija and Hoda Taheri, was screened in the Days of Authors program.