Kumjana Novakova

Kumjana is a research-based filmmaker working also as a film curator and lecturer.

Originally born in Yugoslavia, Kumjana has worked in the field of film and arts since 2006. Her formal education combines international relations, cultural and social research studies in Sofia, Sarajevo, Bologna and Amsterdam. 

In 2006 she co-founded the Pravo Ljudski Film Festival in Sarajevo, and acts as its chief curator. She was leading the Film Department of the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Skopje from 2018 to 2021.

As an author, Kumjana explores the languages of cinema researching relationships related to power, war, memories and (un)belonging. Her film Disturbed Earth (co-directed with G.C. Candi) has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards. Her last film Silence of Reason currently in festival circuit, screened at over 50 festivals and won more than twenty international awards, among which Best Directing Award at the 2023 IDFA Festival, Gran Prix at Punto de Vista, Best International Film at Cinema du Reel and Heart of Sarajevo for Human Rights. Her films have been screened at the MoMA, the Museum of Moving Image, Cinema du Reel, CPH DOX, Gijon, Punto de Vista, DokuFest, etc.

Currently she is a guest lecturer at Netherlands Film Academy (Master in Film Research), HDK-Valand University (MFA in Film) in Gothenburg and at numerous international labs and workshops in documentary film. She has previously taught documentary film at ESCAC, Barcelona and the Bela Tarr film.factory in Sarajevo. 

Kumjana currently lives between Sarajevo and Skopje, North Macedonia.