| Cinema of North Macedonia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| No. ofscreens | 18 (2009)[1] |
| • Per capita | 0.9 per 100,000 (2009)[1] |
| Produced feature films (2010)[2] | |
| Fictional | 4 |
| Animated | - |
| Documentary | - |
| Number of admissions (2011)[3] | |
| Total | 119,575 |
| National films | 24,986 (20.9%) |
Cinema of North Macedonia refers tofilm industry based inNorth Macedonia or any motion-picture made byMacedonians abroad.Janaki and Milton Manaki are considered the founding fathers. The firstfeature film produced by the country wasFrosina (1952) and the most famous director isMilčo Mančevski. The first and only Macedonian movie theater chain is Kinoverzum.[4]
Throughout the past century, the medium of film has depicted the history, culture and everyday life of the people of North Macedonia. Over the years many Macedonian films have been presented at film festivals around the world and several of these films have won prestigious awards. Two Macedonian films have been nominated for anAcademy Award, namelyBefore the Rain (1994) andHoneyland (2019).
The first film to be produced on the territory of the present-day country was made in 1895 byJanaki and Milton Manaki inBitola, who are today considered the founding fathers of the cinema. The country's cinema was mainly developed in the decades following World War II.[5][6] In 1947, the film agencyFilm Skopje and the production companyVardar Film were established.
The first Macedonianfeature film wasFrosina, released in 1952 and directed byVojislav Nanović. The screenplay was written byVlado Maleski, who wrote the lyrics for thecountry's national anthem. The first feature film in colour wasMiss Stone, a movie about a Protestant missionary inOttoman Macedonia. It was released in 1958.
The most famous Macedonian director isMilčo Mančevski, whose debut feature filmBefore the Rain was nominated for anAcademy Award. The highest-grossing feature film in North Macedonia wasBal-Can-Can, having been seen by over 500,000 people in its first year alone.
In 2019, the documentaryHoneyland, directed byTamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, received stellar reviews and universal acclaim from contemporaryfilm critics. It was nominated in the categories forBest International Feature Film andBest Documentary Feature at the92nd Academy Awards, making it the first non-fictional film to receive a nomination in both categories and the country's second nomination at the Academy Awards since 1994.[7] The documentary earned numerous other awards and nominations at international documentary and film awards, including three prizes at the2019 Sundance Film Festival where it was the most awarded film that year.[8][9] The country now produces three or four films per year.[10]
