Tamara Kotevska

Tamara Kotevska was born in Prilep, North Macedonia, and fell in love with filmmaking early on. At the age of twelve, Kotevska picked up a VHS camera and began capturing childhood memories and neighborhood stories. In 2010, she won a US exchange student scholarship and moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she continued to study documentary filmmaking..

Upon her return to North Macedonia, Kotevska began a 2-year collaboration with director Ljubo Stefanov to co-direct LAKE OF APPLES (2016), a short documentary that received over ten grand prizes in international documentary festivals around the world. After this film, Tamara co-directed her debut feature-length documentary HONEYLAND. The film went on to win three awards at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival (Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary, Impact Award, Cinematography Award) and two Academy Award nominations in 2020 for Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature. At the time, it was the only documentary film in history to be nominated in both categories.

After HONEYLAND, Kotevska directed her second feature-length documentary, THE WALK, produced by the Academy Award-winning British production company Grain Media. THE WALK had its world premiere at DOC NYC 2023 and its European Premiere at CPH:DOX 2024. She is currently in post-production on her debut fiction film, MAN VS. FLOCK, and is developing a new documentary about the Dolgan mammoth tusk hunters, which will shoot in the northernmost area of the Siberian tundra. In her films, Kotevska aims to create new forms of filmmaking, unforgettable stories, strong characters and perception-shifting messages.