Manaki Brothers Film Festival 2026

Between the 19th and 25th of September, the impossibly picturesque little town of Bitola, North Macedonia, was once again the backdrop to the International Cinematographer’s Film Festival ”Manaki Brothers”. This, the 47th edition of the festival, offered a full week of presentations, endless film screenings and a whole bouquet of other perks for those fortunate enough to be here. And those of us attending from Northern Europe get to enjoy an additional perk since for a brief few days summer makes a very welcome little encore appearance -and it is largely over and done with back home. And speaking of northern Europeans, this time around the FSF decided to send two representatives, co-President Jon Rudberg FSF, and yours truly.

The Saturday evening opening ceremony was held in the Bitola Cultural Center and, unlike previous years, all the major achievement awards were handed out straight off the bat. Dimitrija Doksevski, serving his second term as Director of the Festival, announced Dan Laustsen ASC DFF as the winner of the Golden Camera 300 for Lifetime Achievement -and no less than two(!) recipients of the Special Golden Camera 300 for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema. Unheard of before, but there’s a natural explanation. Jeff Cronenweth ASC is this year’s official laureate, and Janusz Kamiński won the award at the Manaki festival six years ago -but as this was at the height of the Pandemic, it hasn’t been until now that he could be present to pick it up. 

In fact, Doksevski’s wish to expand the international angle of the festival is demonstrated the very next day as he fires off a veritable cinematic broadside by offering last night’s Golden Camera laureates in three world-class presentations in a row. These are guys sharing a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations between them, so the auditorium is filled to capacity. Laustsen is interviewed by Zlatko Geleski, Cronenweth by Sladjan Penev and finally Kaminski by Suki Medencevic ASC, respectively.

We learn that growing up, Dan Laustsen had zero interest in the cinema, but being persuaded to apply to the national Danish film school changed his life, and looking back he finds that the same wide-angle, single source lighting aesthetic for which he’s now famous, was there in his work from the very beginning. Jeff’s father Jordan Cronenweth ASC created some of the most admired imagery in cinema history, and Jeff spent a lot of his youth on these sets, including on ”Blade Runner” (1982). His own career has resulted in numerous awards and a long collaboration with director David Fincher, resulting in ”Fight Club” (1999) and ”The Social Network” (2010) among many others. 

In an interesting move, the festival have persuaded some top talent to return from last year’s edition. Wally Pfister ASC and Luca Coassin CCS both won prizes last year, and this time around they are Jury Chairmen, of the Main Jury and the Documentary Jury, respectively.

The next few days bring noteworthy presentations as well. On Monday, under the headline ”Finding New ways into the Audience’s Hearts and Minds” cinematographer Matthias Fleischer moderated a discussion between  Janusz Kaminski and Timo Salminen FSC, two panelists very well chosen since both have a decades long collaboration with a famous director. More than thirty years as Steven Spielberg’s DP has supplied Janusz Kaminski with endless stories, and he knows how to tell them. By comparison, Timo Salminen is classically taciturn (casual chatter is not a big trend in Finland) and he sums up his collaboration with Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki with a ”we don’t talk much”.

Tuesday saw Women in Cinematography, led Leitz’s Vika Safrigina, presenting the panel ”Mental health, Limits and Conflict Management” -a proactive checklist we all could use a lot more of   🙂 

”The Manakians” sounds like a 1950s Harold Robbins novel, but is in fact a tightly knit brother/sisterhood (is siblinghood even a word?) of festival enthusiasts who months ahead of time keep track of each other in a lively online chat, and during the few brief days of the festival they blossom like flowers in the spring. As some of them are already company representatives, Wednesday evening was capped off with something pretty unique when normally fierce competitors Arri, Sony, Red, Leitz, Rosco and Astera all got together and arranged a big dinner at a local restaurant, inviting all Fellow Manakians to eat, drink, talk and have a good time -activities that come naturally to all Manakians. Only happens in Bitola.  🙂

Thursday morning featured an IMAGO panel talk led by President Mustapha Barat ABC with Nic Sadler as one of the panelists, offering valuable insight into the threat or possibilities posed by AI. This was followed by a Masterclass with Boris Mojsovski ASC in which he chronicled his journey as both a cinematographer and a director and how he successfully combines the two, being a great believer in lessening tensions on his sets.

Next, I was on my way to my hotel room after a late lunch when my phone buzzed.  Reading the announcement -I simply immediately turned around. Main Jury Chairman Wally Pfister ASC had decided to play a little impromptu concert, well, just because he felt like it. Wally and a local -very talented- drummer entered the stage by the Military Academy and ran through blues, rock, Dylan, Stones -even Johnny Cash was thrown in for good measure -and I pity the makers of the feature film which was screened simultaneously in the Manaki cinema, hopefully nobody walked out of it, but the ”Wally crowd” started out a couple of dozen and by the time the music ended the crowd was well over a hundred head strong. 

The evening was later rounded off with a very poignant Tribute to Nigel Walters BSC, whose passing has been a terrible loss for the international community of cinematographers. Nigel was perhaps the greatest international ambassador the Manaki Festival ever had, and it’s heartbreaking to consider that last year we honoured Ron Johanson ACS in the same way, and now they’re both gone. 

”ASC  Talks”, featuring no less than six society members onstage, opened the Friday program.  In my experience, the ASC have never had a heavier presence at the festival than this year. At least nine members, and I may be missing someone at that. Key take-away from the talks: a good Director protects his DP so he or she can deliver the best possible work. Again, where except at this Festival could you be seated at arms length from world famous celebrities, ask them how something was done and get not a sweeping answer, but the actual blueprint ”how to”, if you care to try it yourself?

The headline ”How not to make a boring film?” turned out to be a not-boring lecture either! Darko Mitrevski delivered a riveting machine-gun-tempo stand up act with valuable tips on how to tell the best possible story. 

Then Sevdije Kastrati Dill ASC, Kosovo born and a graduate of the AFI, together with ASTERA’s Robert Purkarthofer, gives us a case study of the music video ”Barstow”, which in part thanks to the lighting units used, looks like it cost ten times what it actually did.  

The closing ceremony opened with the imagery of the Manaki Brothers filling the screen… Black and white footage of people living in the Balkans a hundred years ago, their daily lives and customs. Accompanied by very suggestive music which built and swelled, the imagery was suddenly projected on the left and right hand walls of the auditorium as well, and it was an amazing experience to be completely enveloped like this, it felt like being in a time machine. Applause, ovations and speeches follow, as many more awards are handed out than can be covered here. There was a tie in the Iron Camera 300 Documentary category as Benjamín Echazarreta with ”Krakatoa” and Maxime Kathari with ”The Beauty of the Donkey” both won.  Silver Camera 300 went to Zhongjiang Liang for ”A Girl Unknown” and Golden Camera 300 went to  Łukasz Żal for Fatherland ”. The ceremony is capped off with a screening of ”You won’t believe what happened before” directed by Srgjan Janakjievikj.

All self-respecting film festivals end with a massive wrap party, and Manaki is no exception. I still see familiar faces in the crowd, but us Manakians must all soon catch our respective flights back home, and accept gradually moving from being physically in the same space back to that lively online chat, promising to meet up again in Bitola for next year’s festival!   

Lars Pettersson FSF