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The Slovenian minority co-production Nobody Said Anything, directed by Serbian director Tamara Todorović, has been selected for the short film competition programme at Cannes. The short film is a Serbian-French-Slovenian-Croatian co-production.
The Slovenian co-producer is Katja Lenarčič (Manjana), and the main producer is Naked, a Serbian production company represented by Čarna Vučinić. Other co-producers include Jasmina Sijerčić (Bocalupo, France), as well as Lucija Perić, Tena Gojić, and Miljenka Čogelja (Dinaridi, Croatia).
Katarina’s daily routine is interrupted by a call that forces her to confront the consequences of a seemingly innocent game involving her daughter. The director says the following about her film: “Like most girls, I was taught to suppress negative emotions because anger and aggression are considered to be traits associated with boys. Women’s anger is often dismissed as hormonal, hysterical, or the result of their upbringing. This film is not about justifying that anger – it is about emotions that erupt over time in unexpected and often destructive ways.”
Actress Iva Kraljević plays Jasmina, and the director of photography is Mladen Teofilović. The Slovenian members of the team include the makeup designer Mojca Gorogranc Petrushevska, sound designer and re-recording mixer Julij Zornik, dialogue editor Martin Vouk, foley artists Igor Iskra, Jaka Skočir, and Žiga Rangus, second camera assistant Domen Rakef, and coordinator and advisor on filming techniques Marjan Bocevski. The entire audio post-production was completed in the 001 recording studio.
Nobody Said Anything was made with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Film Centre Serbia, the National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC, France), ARTE France, the Slovenian Film Centre, Viba, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the city of Kragujevac, and the MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe. The project was developed in the framework of the European Short Pitch forum.
Tamara Todorović studied film and television directing at Belgrade’s Faculty of Dramatic Arts. Her student films Hunger (2017), Pink (2018), and Take Me to the Sea (2022) screened successfully at national and international festivals, including Izola, Zagreb, and Pula. She also directed a children’s TV series – an adaptation of the Dutch hit Talking Heads – for Serbia’s national broadcaster.
From 3,184 entries, 10 titles from around the world were selected for this year’s short film competition programme. The Palme d’Or for Best Short Film will be awarded on Saturday, 23 May, at the closing ceremony of the 79th festival.
The short live-action film Left Behind, Still Standing, directed by Vida Skerk from Trieste, has been selected for the La Cinéf programme, which features the most promising young filmmakers from around the world. The director co-wrote the screenplay with Tommy Hurst. The Croatian-Venezuelan actress Lucia Luque Akrap leads the cast, with Bailey Brook, Pippa Winslow, David Mildon, and Lianne Harvey in supporting roles.
The film explores themes of migration, labour, and belonging. Morana, a Croatian immigrant, is employed in dismantling a steel factory in a small British town. When the factory miraculously comes back to life one night, she has to confront the fragility of her own existence – and how much she truly has in common with the laid-off workers.
It was created by an international team of filmmakers in their final year at the NFTS (UK National Film and Television School). For Skerk, producer Dora Galosi, and sound designer Vicente Molder, the selection marks their return to Cannes after their collaboration on Ether, which premiered at La Cinéf in 2025. It also marks the second time Skerk has collaborated with a Croatian actress in a leading role in a UK-based production, following Laura Kaliger’s performance in Ether.
Director and co-writer Vida Skerk stated: “Left Behind, Still Standing came from a very personal need to process feelings of displacement and the ways people and communities are left behind. At its heart, it’s about finding solidarity in difficult circumstances, and I’m incredibly proud that this story, shaped by such a diverse and international team, has been recognised by Cannes. I'm honoured to be given the opportunity to attend the festival once again this year. The whole crew worked incredibly hard to make this film, and I am very happy that I get to share the joy of such wonderful recognition with these incredibly talented collaborators.”
Vida Skerk is a screenwriter and director. She was born in Trieste and holds Slovenian, Croatian, and Italian citizenship. She grew up in Trieste, where she attended Slovenian schools and graduated from the Secondary School France Prešeren. Her work blends elements of surrealism with a grounded emotional approach, often exploring themes of identity, belonging, and connection. She is a recent graduate of the Directing Fiction MFA at the National Film and Television School, where both films were developed, and the first director in the school’s history to be selected twice for La Cinéf.
Before the NFTS, she directed Night Ride (original title: Noćna vožnja), which screened at BFI Flare and Premiers Plans d’Angers, where it received the Student Jury Award. The film also won the Oktavijan Award from the Croatian Film Critics Association. She often collaborates with Slovenian directors of photography Urh Pirc and Domen Martinčič.
The 79th edition of Cannes Film Festival will take place from 12 to 23 May. At least 188 films and associated audio-visual works in different formats will be screened across 14 competitive and non-competitive sections. For more information, you can find us at the South East European pavilion no. 135 at Marché du film.
Source: Slovenian Film Centre
