CASA CINE 2026 - COMPOSERS

Welcome, residents of CASA CINE 2026!

Our jury, composed of Delphine Mantoulet, Pierre Ruscher, and Renaud Barbier, has selected the candidates who will join CASA CINE in May at the Château de la Napoule to devote themselves to creating the original soundtracks for feature-length fiction films. This year, we are delighted to welcome composers Ana Krstajić from Serbia and Samuel Marot-Saferis from France.

Ana Krstajić

Film score composer
Serbia

Feature Fiction

Anomalie

Ana Krstajić is a Serbian composer who writes music for film, television, theater, and video games. Her work combines a contemporary orchestral language with influences from the musical traditions of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. She studied composition and orchestration at the Faculty of Music Arts in Belgrade.

During her studies, she received significant international recognition, including first place in the “Women’s Works” competition (2014) for young composers, as well as a full scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in composition for film, television, and video games at Berklee College of Music, as part of the international “The Best Musical Mind” competition. In 2018, she received an Honorable Mention at the SoundTrack_Cologne festival in the European Talent category. Over the years, she has collaborated with international studios and orchestras in Europe and the United States, and many of her compositions have been performed and recorded internationally. She has also composed music for several theater productions in Serbia, and her first contemporary ballet suite for string orchestra, Marko, premiered in 2020. The following year, Our Land, an original piece for fortepiano and orchestra, was honored with a Hollywood Music in Media Award in the Orchestral category.

In recent years, Ana Krstajić has composed several soundtracks for internationally award-winning short and feature films. Among them, Nina Ognjanović's feature film Where the Road Leads stands out, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2023 in the United States, where it received the Audience Award for Best Fiction Feature Film and an Honorable Mention from the Grand Jury. She also composed the original music for Rasa Bukvic's short film One More Day, which opened FEST – Belgrade International Film Festival in 2024. Her soundtrack for Aleksandar Hadži Djurović's feature film A Cross in the Desert was released by Universal Music Group. She also worked with director Milorad Milinković on The Duke and the Poet and on his final film, Sedef Magla.

During CASA CINE, Ana Krstajić will be working on the soundtrack for Anomalie, the first feature film by Macedonian director Marko Gjokovik. This co-production between North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia is a psychological drama that follows the gradual deterioration of the relationship between four housemates, exploring the mechanisms of power and submission in an oppressive huis-clos.

by Marko Gjokovik

Samuel Marot-Saferis

Film score composer
France

Feature fiction

Mermaid Avenue

Samuel Marot-Saferis is a French film score composer. After studying cello and musical composition at the conservatory, he graduated in film composition at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris (CRR) and later completed his education with studies in sound design and sound techniques at the École Internationale de Création Audiovisuelle et de Réalisation (EICAR) in Paris. His work is characterized by a strong experimental and versatile approach, creating musical universes where the classical acoustic repertoire blends with contemporary electronic influences.

In 2019, Samuel Marot-Saferis began collaborating on the composition of music for feature and documentary films, resulting in more than thirty soundtracks for national and international projects. Among the most notable are Paumo d'Amour, directed by Ian Halley, for which he received the Best Music award at the Aniwow! festival in Beijing in 2024, and Les Garçons, Les Filles by Camille Sismans, which was screened at the Cinéma Du Réel festival in Paris. In 2025, he collaborated with director Rodolphe Bouquet-Populus on La Dernière Neige, which was selected for national competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and was screened at the Gérardmer Festival, the Paris International Fantastic Film Festival and Screamfest Festival in LA, where it won Best Short film.

In 2025, Samuel Marot-Saferis collaborated with French-Egyptian director Sharon Hakim for the first time, in her short film Como Ler o Vento, which premiered in the Quinzaine des Cinéastes at the Festival de Cannes. During the course of CASA CINE, he will be working on the soundtrack for her feature film, Mermaid Avenue, which has already received accolades such as a Cinemed Jury mention and support from the Royal Jordan Commission. The project was selected in 2025 for the Director’s Factory pitch session during the Quinzaine des Cinéastes of the Festival de Cannes. Produced by Les Films du Tambour, Mermaid Avenue follows the coming of age of a young Coptic Egyptian woman raised in Brooklyn and her search for emancipation as she navigates between the two cultures.

by Sharon Hakim

SERENA Productions and La Napoule Art Foundation thank all applicants and congratulate the participants of the 2026 edition of CASA CINE, which will take place at the Château de la Napoule, from May 6th to 29th.