Kumjana Novakova is a research-based filmmaker who also works as film-curator and lecturer. Born in Yugoslavia, Novakova 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 latest film, Silence of Reason, is currently in the festival circuit, and has won more than 15 international awards, including Best Directing Award in the Envision competition at the 2023 IDFA Festival, Gran Prix at Punto de Vista, and Best Mid-length Documentary film at HotDocs. In 2025, she was invited to be a member of the European Film Academy.
While at MacDowell, Novakova worked on the audiovisual methodologies for two film projects in development. Old Future Tales focuses on erased and silenced female filmmakers throughout history, reviving their practices as forms of cinematic resistance. Notes on an Impossible Journey explores layers of historical violence in the Balkan region, including forced displacements, exile and war.
Portrait by Dragica Nikolovska
