Director Jelena Gavrilović Selected for the Lopud Artist Retreat

Serbian director Jelena Gavrilović has been selected for the Lopud Artist Retreat in spring 2026. Jelena will spend four weeks on the island of Lopud working on her first feature film with the working title 13 SQUARE METERS. Jelena has been selected, based on her submitted project, after participating in Slano Film Days 2025.  

This continues the collaboration between Slano Film Days and the Lopud Foundation Artist Retreat, aiming to support emerging film professionals working on new projects, especially young directors from the region who are working on their new feature film screenplay.  

Jelena Gavrilović graduated in Film and Television Directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. Her student films BOYS, WHERE ARE YOU  (2012), WITH MANY THINGS TO COME (2015), and NOBODY HERE (2017) were screened and awarded at numerous international film festivals. She has worked on several TV series, most notably AWAKE (2021), which won the Audience Award at Canneseries, and SHAME (2024), which she directs for Croatian TV, and is currently completing its second season. 

“I see the Lopud Artist Retreat as the perfect way to isolate myself and truly focus on writing. My goal is to make a deeply emotional film, and I feel it would be much easier to write it in nature than in the city, where it is sometimes very difficult to hear my own thoughts,” said Jelena. 

The Lopud Foundation Artist Retreat and Slano Film Days offer selected participants a unique opportunity to focus entirely on developing and writing their screenplays during a four-week stay in the quietness and beauty of the island of Lopud.   

There are two retreats each year - one in the spring and one in the autumn - for four weeks each. Currently, four artists are invited to each retreat. Each retreat hosts artists from across the world and has either a Croatian or someone from the region as a guest.   

To read more about Jelena Gavrilović and the short synopsis of the film, click HERE.

To read more about the collaboration between the Lopud Foundation Artist Retreat and Slano Film Days click HERE.