PriFest - Prishtina International Film Festival is a feature film festival set in the youngest country in the Balkans, Kosovo, namely in its capital Pristina. It was founded in 2008, and this year it holds its 16th edition.
Prishtina International Film Festival is the most important film event that is held in Kosovo. Vanessa Redgrave is one of the festival’s dearest friends. She supported the first edition by attending and leading the opening ceremony. She is the president of the Honorary Board of the Festival and supports the festival by promoting it in various international circles.
The festival consists of four competition programs: the Balkan film competition program (also known as Honey and Blood Cinema), the Global film competition program, European Comedy competition program, the Middle-length competition program (comprised of 25-60 min length films), Short film competition program, the Documentary film program. The latter promotes documentaries from around the world that revolve around subjects related to human rights and the environment. All of the above-mentioned programs are open to the whole world. PriFest also has non-competitive programs, like the Focus program, which promotes cinematography of a specific country or director, and the Let It Be program, which is a result of cooperation with Outfest LA, an LGBTI film festival.
This program aims to raise awareness and promote tolerance towards the LGBTI community in Kosovo by offering more knowledge, information and understanding through cinema and feature films. The festival is honored to have the programmers of Outfest LA as curators of this program. Last but not least is the The Special Screenings program, which promotes winners of prestigious festivals like Cannes FF, Berlinale, Toronto, Venice or Oscar winners, giving the Kosovar audience the unique opportunity to see art house films from around the world.
We prioritize our afterparties program with only the very best selection of local and international electronic music artists, as well as alternative rock music bands. You will find yourself enjoying the evenings in good company, at trendy and affordable clubs and bars. If you’re feeling rather adventurous, you can join excursions organized by the festival around Kosovo to experience the country’s beautiful landscape and nature, visit cultural heritage monuments and try delicious traditional dishes.
In 2015, Prishtina International Film Festival suffered an interruption in the form of drastic funding cuts by the newly appointed Minister of Culture. This forced the Prishtina International Film Festival management to make the decision to rebel and protest by taking the festival to Tirana, Albania, and holding a special edition there, in exile, without budget. The echo of this action spread widely and gained the festival great support from the regional, European and world film industries. Prishtina International Film Festival came back home last year with a very strong edition, expanding in many aspects. This year we certainly do not plan to do less, therefore we need your support to show the importance of this event for the development of film industry and for supporting young talents in a small country like Kosovo.
We hope you join this year 10-15 September 2024!