BEACH FILM FESTIVAL (BFF) promotes and celebrates European cinema's latest achievements. The festival is an interdisciplinary event focused on the development and presentation of the newest European films. The program is intended for people of all ages, with special emphasis on a younger intellectual audience, interested in film or engaged with contemporary European culture. The idea is to use the summer period and the beach as a social phenomenon for exchanging experiences and discussions in a more relaxed way, without the urban pressures or any time-space inhibitors.
The Festival is internally organised as a tripartite structure including • Film, • Education, • Multimedia sections.
During the five festival days, our main focus is naturally on the first section – Film. Around 50 films, both short and feature-length, are screened at our many locations:
1. Official selection of 7 feature films – “Slavija” Beach and “Armada” Boat, Ohrid. 2. Focus country selection: 5 feature films – “Saraishte” Beach, Ohrid. 3. Official selection of 14 short films - “Saraishte” Beach, Ohrid. 4. Official selection of 9 student films - “Saraishte” Beach and Youth Cultural Center, Ohrid. 5. Special screening of 6 children feature films - “Saraishte” Beach, Ohrid. 6. Special screening of 3 feature and 3 short films - “Saraishte” Beach, Ohrid. The films are chosen by local and international selectors, with “Authorship Innovation” “Idea and Approach” “Bridges and Connections – Europe in the Focus” and “Human Rights in Action” as the four major criteria for both the selection and the final awards.
As part of the second thematic program – education, we offer a diverse, high quality program, suitable for both professionals and amateurs. Educational masterclasses led by experienced representatives of the industry and constructive panel and roundtable discussions are organized annually as part of the Festival’s program. All festivalgoers are welcome to these events.
For our younger audience, we avidly prepare film-related workshops with themes ranging from acting to film critique. They are mainly directed towards children and teenagers and aim to bridge the gap between the art of filmmaking and formal education. Furthermore, we strive to implement activities which focus on cultural heritage and ecology as part of the main educational events.
Finally, the multimedia section consists of music shows, a tourist tour of Ohrid, as well as formal and informal discussions after the movie screenings. The Festival itself takes place in different locations in the town of Ohrid, however, many workshops and creative events are organized in neighboring cities, even after the official duration of the 5 festival days.
Our main aim, as well as our greatest challenge, is to utilise the absence of cultural and creative events in Ohrid during the summer season. We tirelessly attempt to gain recognition and to pave our way as a Festival of the utmost quality in the main tourist site in Macedonia.