-Acting is a profession of eternal learning. There is no actor who has graduated from some school once and for all, because life and the projects he enters and exits are the school he always faces. With each new project, the actor starts from scratch. Fortunately, we have an actor who has gone through all the usual phases that go through all the phases in the world. Toni Naumovski worked in theater, television, and film in New York, and to get here in such serious circumstances is a huge success, said Jani Bojadzi, director of the Balkan and Mediterranean Film Festival “Across the Lake” at today’s press conference and introduced this year’s laureate of the “Meto Jovanovski” award.


Naumovski, with the Macedonian film, “Lena and Vladimir” last year, received 14 awards for acting achievement, several more nominations at more than 80 festivals around the world.


-It is very difficult for me to find words to express my gratitude for the honor. We should learn how to live, not how to play, the great director Jerzy Grotowski would say. I feel grateful, blessed, privileged and humbled. Meto Jovanovski played in the world champions league and left a deep cultural legacy from which we should learn and rejoice that we had such a man, said Naumovski.
Zlatko Geleski, the selector of this year’s program, said that this year is very rich, and pointed out that the story will be revealed in stages and connected to all points along the Mediterranean.


-Mediterranean film today encompasses many cultures, different issues of the entire Mediterranean and that is precisely why I chose these six films in the official selection: HOLD ON TO ME directed by Myrsini Aristidou / CYPRUS – he opens this edition, THE GAMBLER directed by Mohsen Bahari / IRAN international premiere, COMA directed by Agim Abdullah / MACEDONIA,
FLESH, directed by Dimiter Stojanovic / BULGARIA, REFLECTION IN THE DEAD DIAMOND directed by Ellen Kate, Bruno Forzani / BELGIUM guest Yannick Renier
KARMADONA, directed by Aleksandar Radivojević / SERBIA, announced Geleski and pointed out that this year the audience will be able to watch 16 short films, of which 10 are domestic and 6 are foreign, then 13 student films from the three faculties.
Within the festival, in honor of the laureate, “My New York” and “Lena and Vladimir” will be screened, there will be special screenings of the film “The Prespa Code” by Nikola Popovski and three ethnological films, and in honor of Meto Jovanovski, whose name the award given by the festival bears, “Pavilion” will be screened.


This year, the country in focus is Iran and 4 films from contemporary Iranian cinema will be screened and a panel will be held on the topic “Who will direct the future of contemporary Iranian film? – Can Iranian film cope with the challenges of modern life?” which will be addressed by Mehrdad Khamenei, director of the “Exit Art” studio, Agim Abdullah, a director who graduated in directing in Iran, and Damjana Ivanovska, a filmologist from the Cinematheque.

The films in the main selection will be decided by a jury consisting of: Miroslav Mitic, producer Eleonora Veninova, director, and Emilie Richel, representative from France.
Producer Dejan Miloševski informed about the workshop on Iranian film and artificial intelligence in film and a workshop on auteur film and authorship in film.
-We expect over a hundred participants, the festival program will be realized in Gevgelija, Strumica and Dojran. Every day there are planned film screenings, panels, master classes, I invite you all to come and swim against the waves – as the motto of the festival says, said Miloševski.
The festival “Across the Lake” this year is held from July 8-15 in Dojran, Gevgelija and Strumica.