Thursday at Cinehill brings titles about political and corporate deception, unfulfilled lives, and parodies of immortal horror franchises. Alongside the main programs, we’ll present student films, host Q&As with filmmakers and round off the evening with a rich late-night programme. The day begins at 10:00 with the morning workout session by the lake, followed by the CDFG Campus, an industry training program that will hold a showcase of student films from Prague’s FAMU and the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje.

The film program starts at 11:00 at two screens simultaneously. Cinema Bauer offers a repeat screening of the award-winning Israeli drama The Sea by Shai Carmeli-Pollak, along with the short The Battle of the Brushes by Lorenzo Fabbro. The Sea is a story of a 12-year-old boy in occupied Palestine who sets out alone on a dangerous journey to the coast, which won five Ophir Awards, including Best Film and Screenplay – yet its unflinching portrayal of the Israeli military provoked an outcry from Israel’s Ministry of Culture – and we all know that films are at their most interesting when they are met with criticism from the institutions of power.

Meanwhile at Cinema Golik, get ready for Dust by director Anke Blondé, a story of two tech tycoons, Luc and Geert, who discover that the media are about to expose their network of shell companies and the drama that ensues during their final day of wealth and influence.

At 13:00, the owl Scar and hawk Braco return to Rakov Jarak for a falconry presentation, while Cinema Bauer hosts a repeat screening of Piotr Domalewski’s The Altar Boys. At 13:30 at Cinema Mak, we present the Cinema Shift Festival from Toronto, dedicated to films made with the help of artificial intelligence, and discuss the creative possibilities and controversies surrounding AI in filmmaking.

Shortly after, at 14:00 at Cinema Golik, there is a reprise of The Tigers by Alberto Rodríguez. And at 15:00, at Cinema Bauer we are in for the drama I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning by Clio Barnard, in which formerly inseparable friends, now in their thirties, face unfulfilled expectations and attempt to escape adulthood.

Alternatively, at 15:30 at Cinema Mak well be screening the second block of the CineCorto competition shorts, while at 16:00, Baher Agbariya, producer of The Sea, joins our selector Milena Zajović in conversation about working under conditions of political and physical constraint.

At 17:00 in Rakov Jarak, on the occasion of his lifetime achievement award, this year’s 50 Years Award laureate Zijah Sokolović joins Cinehill director Igor Mirković in conversation about his genre-diverse body of work and his craft amid political tensions. At the same time, Conclave, the political thriller set behind the closed doors of the Vatican and one of Maverick Award laureate Edward Berger’s most celebrated titles, runs at Cinema Golik.

A repeat screening of Manuela Martelli’s The Meltdown takes place at 18:00 at Cinema Bauer. In the film, nine-year-old Inés befriends a German skier at her grandparents’ hotel. When the young woman disappears, Inés is among the last to have seen her, yet the police investigation is hamstrung by the demands of the tourist season.

The Montenegrin programme continues at 18:30 at Cinema Mak, with Ivan Marinović’s comedy Forever Hold Your Peace and the short film Blue by Nemanja Lakić.

The evening bonfire in Rakov Jarak takes place at 20:30, offering another chance to meet festival guests, before the program continues across three cinema locations. At 21:00, the short Special Day by Katarina Bulajić, about a woman worn down by motherhood and social expectations, screens at Cinema Piknik.

At the same time, at the impressive Damside Theatre, we’ll screen the self-deprecating Montenegrin comedy 15 and a Half, directed by seasoned actor Milivoje Obradović, along with the short The View Was Everything by Blais Cameron – locally better known as the son of the popular singer Tajči. Like Obradović, his protagonist Nik is a successful actor who decides to try his hand at directing, while his project gradually becomes an obsessive record of his own life.

The evening’s film program closes at 21:30 at Cinema Bauer, with the Cannes Queer Palm winner, the meta-horror comedy Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma by Jane Schoenbrun. A young director hired to make a new instalment of a famous horror franchise manages to persuade the reclusive actress from the original film to make a comeback – played by the unmissable Gillian Anderson. Their relationship gradually escalates into a psychological obsession, while the boundaries between genre tropes and personal fixations rapidly dissolve.

Thursday’s musical finale belongs to the Zagorje hip-hop duo Idu Hobiti, who build their music from samples of forgotten songs from the 70s and 80s. The party then continues until the early hours with DISCO KSET.