CREATIVE PLACEMAKERS - COMPOSER
Ana Krstajić is a Serbian composer for film, television, video games, and the concert stage, whose work explores the space between contemporary orchestral writing, intimate acoustic sound, and the musical memory of the Balkans. Nature, folklore, memory, and the inner emotional lives of characters are recurring sources of inspiration in her work. Rather than treating music as decoration, she approaches it as an invisible layer of storytelling—a space capable of revealing what remains unspoken on screen.
She studied composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, where she was mentored by acclaimed Serbian composer Isidora Žebeljan, before graduating from Berklee College of Music in Boston with a degree in Music for Film and Interactive Media.
Ana’s international work spans feature films, television, animation, and video games. Her credits include additional music for Netflix’s The Witcher, the award-winning feature A Cross in the Desert, Where the Road Leads, and the narrative video game Rue Valley, for which she served as lead composer. Her music has been released internationally by Universal Music and performed in concert across Europe and the United States, including a performance of her orchestral work Heroic Cinematic at the United Nations in New York as part of Global Women in Music.
In 2026, Ana was selected for the CASA CINE residency during the Cannes Film Festival, where she developed music for an international feature project and presented her work within the festival’s professional environment. She was also selected as one of eight composers for the BMI Composer Lab in Los Angeles and has participated in the SCL New York Mentorship Program, continuing her artistic development through mentorship and exchange with leading voices in contemporary film music.
Her work has received numerous distinctions, including a Hollywood Music in Media Award nomination and the Musika Klasika Award for Best Media Composer in Serbia. She is a member of the Recording Academy and currently serves as an Artist-in-Residence at Kolarac Concert Hall in Belgrade.
Alongside her work for the screen, Ana maintains an active contemporary classical practice. Her debut album, Mountain Eyes (Gorske Oči), grew from the landscapes of Durmitor in Montenegro and her own family roots in the region. Written primarily for strings and solo instruments, the project reflects a central idea running throughout her music: the search for something ancient, instinctive, and deeply human within a contemporary musical language.
Her scores frequently combine live orchestral writing with unusual instrumental colours and elements drawn from Balkan musical traditions. Strings remain at the heart of her musical language, alongside instruments such as kaval, frula, gusle, and other acoustic and folk timbres. Whether working with a single performer or a full orchestra, she is particularly interested in imperfection, physicality, and the emotional presence that live musicians bring to a score.
Across her work, Ana continues to explore how music can connect landscape, cultural memory, and contemporary storytelling—creating musical worlds that feel at once personal and cinematic, rooted and borderless.