Kumjana Novakova is a research-based filmmaker working also as a film curator and lecturer. Originally born in Yugoslavia, Kumjana entered film and arts following her formal education in social sciences and research methodologies in Sofia, Sarajevo, Bologna and Amsterdam. She is one of the co-founders of the Pravo Ljudski Film Festival in Sarajevo, and she was leading the Film Department of the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Skopje from 2018 to 2021.

Kumjana’s art practice is research-based and lies at the intersection of cinema and contemporary art, exploring relationships related to power, war, memories and resistance. Her film Disturbed Earth (co-directed with G.C. Candi) has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards. Her last film Silence of Reason, screened at over 60 festivals and won more than twenty international awards, among which Best Directing Award at the 2023 IDFA Festival, Best mid-length film at HotDocs, Gran Prix at Punto de Vista, Best International Film at Cinema du Reel, Heart of Sarajevo for Human Rights, etc.

Kumjana’s work has been exhibited at various venues, including the MoMA, the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Moving Image, IDFA, CPH DOX, Punto de Vista, DokuFest, etc.

She has been mentoring documentary cinema labs such as Doc Station of Berlinale Talents, IDFA Project Space, BDC Discoveries, etc. In formal education, she was guest lecturer at the Master in Film Research of the Netherlands Film Academy, the MFA in Film of HDK-Valand University in Gothenburg, ESCAC, Barcelona and the Bela Tarr film.factory in Sarajevo. Kumjana is a Fall 2024-Winter 2025 MacDowell fellow. Kumjana currently lives between Sarajevo and Skopje, North Macedonia.