🟣🔴🟢 Belarusian Filmmakers’ Network (BFN) is a collective project open to all Belarusian filmmakers. BFN's aim is transparency, efficiency and integration into the European film industry.

 

 

About Us

Belarusian Filmmakers' Network (BFN) is a collective project open to all Belarusian filmmakers, based on professional rather than political lines. BFN unites filmmakers from Belarus, including those who are currently living in exile in Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland and other countries. BFN aims to put Belarusian cinema back on the European film industry's map, doing that transparently and efficiently.



Belarusian Filmmakers' Network: a manifesto

Contemporary Belarusian cinema lies in shambles. An acute political and economic crisis in Belarus coincided with the collapse of an authoritarian culture management paradigm, based on bureaucratic control, political censorship, stylistic conformity and a chronic shortage of funding.

Previous creative and production models have become obsolete. At a time of cultural terror and cultural resistance, filmmakers have found themselves on a territory of permanent uncertainty, in a wild field of new reality. 

   

BFN's main areas of activity are:

  • production: fostering private and foreign investment, focus on European collaborations
  • education and promotion: long-term international educational projects, mobility in education, active festival presence
  • stylistic reinvention: a search for new, post-totalitarian stylistic approaches to replace outdated aesthetics.
      

🟣BFN strives to build the future of Belarusian cinema, focusing on horizontal networks as opposed to vertical hierarchies.
🔴BFN unites Belarusian filmmakers along professional rather than political lines.
🟢BFN is a way for Belarusian cinema to become relevant and get noticed on a global scale.

 

News

How the Lithuanian Release of “The Swan Song” Went

After its premiere in Palanga, “The Swan Song of Fiodar Ozerau” toured Lithuania. The Vilnius screenings sold out — and Lithuanian audiences came too.

September 30, 2026

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Yauhen Lytkin’s “The Final Test” — from the USA to Jordan

Director Yauhen Lytkin’s short psychological film “The Final Test” is on a busy festival run — and has won a Special Jury Prize in Amman.

September 25, 2026

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“Life After Belarus” — Leanid Kalicienia Interviewed by Malanka

Malanka Action has published a portrait interview with BFN coordinator Leanid Kalicienia about emigration, the network of Belarusian filmmakers and working in the EU.

September 20, 2026

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“The Swan Song of Fiodar Ozerau” Opens in Lithuanian Cinemas

On 21 August, Yury Siamashka’s film premieres in Lithuania at the Tik be dramų festival in Palanga, then goes on release across the country — the first time an entirely Belarusian film has had a regular theatrical release in Lithuania.

August 20, 2026

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Belarusian Cinema in Exile — a Special Issue of Apparatus

The international academic journal Apparatus has published a special issue devoted to Belarusian cinema after 2020. The editors’ introduction mentions the Belarusian Filmmakers’ Network.

July 8, 2026

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