Kiril Karakash (1992, Prilep, Macedonia) is Macedonian film director, producer and one of the co-founders of Opium Film production company based in Skopje, Macedonia. Kiril holds a degree in film and TV directing from the University of Audio-Visual Arts, ESRA-Skopje and he further studied Film and TV production at the same university. Filmmaking and photography have been important in his life since the age of 12 when he entered the national amateur film festival with his first film and he has been writing, directing, editing and producing short films, documentaries and feature films since then. Kiril has also worked as an assistant director and first assistant director on a number of short films.
Since 2015 he has been assistant manager of the National Amateur Film Festival of Macedonia and in 2019 he, together with his partner Svetislav Podleshanov, took over the management of the festival. During the last few years he has also worked as a mentor for high school students in creative documentary film for young audiences.
Kiril is currently, together with his colleague Svetislav Podleshanov, working on his first feature length documentary “IRONMAN” in development phase which has been selected on Beldocs Academy Program (pitching training) in Belgrade, Serbia; on Balkan Documentary Center BDC Discoveries 2019 workshop for project development and pitching (in three modules Sofia, Prizren (Docufest) and DOK Leipzig); Talents Sarajevo, in Pack & Pitch Program at CineLink Industry Days on the 25.Sarajevo Film Festival 2019; Makedox CoProDox Forum at 10.Makedox International Documentary Film Festival, Skopje Macedonia 2019, Sound workshop on 11.Makedox International Documentary Film Festival, Macedonia 2020.
Besides filmmaking since 2007 Kiril has also been passionate about photography and has won prizes for his photographs at national competitions of photography in Macedonia. He has been active in humanitarian photography; in 2009 he had a solo exhibition and in 2010 organised a group exhibition to help people in need. He was also working for the human trafficking prevention project to raise awareness, and his photograph was featured on the cover page of the The Institute for Human Rights magazine Women&Justice: Legal Dialogue in 2013.