The 23rd edition of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival, DokuFest, which starts on Friday, will showcase hundreds of films over eight days, and will focus on the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Palestine in its special programmes. 

“In a world in rapid transition, where a new geopolitical reconfiguration may be underway, various forces and trends are driving fundamental changes to the international order,” the festival announced.

Films will be screened in five outdoor cinemas and four indoor cinemas in the historic city of Prizren, from 2-10 August.

Dokufest Executive Director Linda Llulla told Kallxo.com on Wednesday that 3,325 films from 119 countries were submitted for participation in this year’s DokuFest.

“The festival’s programming team selected 103 films in eight competition programs, many of which will have their world, international, and European premieres, making ‘DokuFest’ an important platform for screenings in this part of the world, both for documentaries and short films,” Llulla told KALLXO.com.

Renowned figures in cinema, such as Anna Henckel, head of the short film section at Berlinale, “Berlinale Shorts,” as well as numerous other filmmakers from Taiwan, Ukraine, Germany, Austria, and others, will participate in “DokuFest 2024.”

“Within the programme ‘Focus on Ukraine,’ we will host many artists and filmmakers from Ukraine here in Prizren. We will also have an exhibition opening on August 5 in the courtyard of the Shani Efendi building as part of ‘DokuPhoto’,”  Llulla added.

Apart from cinemas, this year’s edition sees DokuNight evolve into a new format of a citywide musical embrace, featuring three separate stages with different music acts,” is according to  the official page of the Festival.

DokuFest was founded in 2002 and is  the largest film festival in Kosovo. 

Since 2019, DokuFest has been recognised as a BAFTA-qualifying festival for short films, and in 2022, it was designated as a nominee festival for the prestigious European Film Academy.