|
Osnaživanje, stil i inspiracija spajaju se u svakom izdanju našeg magazina.
|
June 1, 2026
Back in 1987, a Serbian short film was selected for the official competition at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival for the last time. A silence that lasted nearly four decades was finally broken this spring — and a woman director, Tamara Todorović, is responsible for it.
This is undoubtedly a historic achievement for Serbian cinema. Only ten short films worldwide were selected for Cannes’ main short film competition out of 3,184 submissions. In the 1980s, Miloš Radović achieved the same feat with The Sudden and Premature Death of Colonel K.K., and today Tamara Todorović joins that list with No One Said Anything — a film that also happens to be her master’s thesis project. The film was produced as a co-production between Serbia, France, Slovenia and Croatia, while producer Čarna Vučinić represented the production company NAKED.
Tamara Todorović’s No One Said Anything follows what initially appears to be an ordinary evening in Katarina’s life. Her routine is interrupted by a phone call that forces her to confront the consequences of what seemed to be an innocent game involving her daughter. The cast includes Ivana Vuković, Kalina Šutić, Viktorija Vasiljević, Milica Stefanović, Iva Kraljević, Elena Popović, Marta Grujić, Petar Požega and Jovan Belobrković. Ena Bajraktarević served as co-producer, Mladen Teofilović as director of photography, Kristina Todorović as editor, Ana Ivanišević as production designer, Strahinja Tabaković as costume designer, Mojca Gorogranc Petrushevska as makeup artist and Julij Zornik as sound designer.
For us at Fempiria.rs, this is also a triumph of female creative power. Although the situation is slowly changing, women still make up only 13.5% of film directors worldwide, while only 15–20% of films in Cannes competition programs are directed by women — and just 5% in the main competition. All the more reason to speak with Tamara Todorović.
The longest part of the entire process was securing financing for the film — mainly waiting for funding calls. Everything else moved quickly and smoothly. We started casting in June 2025, began preparations with the crew in October, filmed in January and premiered the film in May 2026. I can’t really say I encountered major obstacles on the road to Cannes because Cannes itself was never the goal — it was a dream. When you’re making a film, you don’t think about festivals; you focus on the film. Once it’s finished, you submit it, forget about it and hope for the best.
For the first time in my life, I actually felt an incredible sense of confidence while working on this film. I didn’t feel like I knew exactly what I was doing every moment, but I understood that this was normal, and it didn’t scare me. The atmosphere on set was such that everyone was fully committed to the film. We all believed in what we were creating, and because of that, there simply wasn’t room for fear.
I think that may actually be the hardest part. Very quickly, you become aware of expectations — what is desirable, what is trendy, what works well at festivals and what is easier to finance. And then it becomes very easy to start thinking about what a film should look like instead of why you wanted to make it in the first place. The success of this film proved something completely different to me. This was absolutely not a film designed for festivals. It was simply the film I wanted to make, in the way I wanted to make it, with the people I wanted beside me. Because we believed in it so deeply, all of this still feels surreal to us.
I don’t believe there is such a thing as a “female film” or a “male film.” To me, film is simply storytelling, and every story can be told differently depending on the experience and sensibility of the person telling it. Of course, male and female experiences differ greatly, but every filmmaker is also unique individually. Every author today brings something personal and different to cinema.
It taught me that I have far more patience than I thought and that relationships with people matter to me just as much as the film itself. I used to think I had to do everything alone and constantly prove that I deserved my place. Through this process, I experienced for the first time how important trust really is — and how filmmaking is ultimately something created together.
It’s impossible to describe the current generation of young Balkan women filmmakers in just one sentence, but I can say this: they are here, they have been here for some time, and they are remarkable, authentic and above all brave. Each of them is pushing boundaries and leaving a mark in her own way. In the conditions under which films are made in our region, even getting an opportunity is already a huge challenge. And then you need real courage to make the most of that opportunity. That is exactly why I find it inspiring to see women who continue creating despite everything and remain true to their own voice.
Tamara Todorović was not the only Serbian female director in Cannes this year. Film student Tara Gajović entered the La Cinef program with her graduation film Across the Threshold, a section dedicated to the world’s best student films. The program included 19 films selected from 2,750 submissions from film schools around the globe.
