The Association of Film Actors assesses that National film and television festival in Zlatibor "an insult to common sense and the tradition we preserve", that the decision to hold it was made "without dialogue with representative associations from the film community, and that it represents an essential and symbolic wrong move" for the Association of Film Actors.
That's why they made the decision to boycott the National Film and Television Festival.
We are not a backdrop.
"Serbian film and Serbian actors have always shared the fate of the citizens of Serbia. That is why today they are not in a situation to celebrate, but to fight for the very survival of the area of culture and art," they said.
They emphasize that "Serbian cinematography cannot be privatized, instrumentalized, or used as a backdrop for a semblance of normalcy."
Three more associations are boycotting the National Film and Television Festival: Association of Film Directors of Serbia, Association of Film Screenwriters and Association of Cinematographers.
And the same thing bothers everyone: the festival is being held in a year when cinematography is facing the biggest crisis in recent history because its funding has been cut, when other big festivals are canceled for the same reason, and there is an attempt to privatize cinematography.
Little is known.
The National Film and Television Festival - NAFFIT will start in ten days (September 3-7), and we only know about it that it will be held in Zlatibor in Prijepolje and Nova Varoš, that for it recently the state gave 35 million dinars and that before that she gave 16 million plus 12 million and 200.000 dinars for the reconstruction of the cultural centers of the mentioned hosts, the members of the Organizing Committee know - that's more or less all.
The members are: Milan Stamatović, president of the Municipality of Čajetina, director Predrag Gaga Antonijević, initiator of the festival, Maksa Ćatović as executive producer, actor Lazar Ristovski, director Miroslav Lekić, president of the Board of Directors of the Film Center of Serbia, Arsen Đurić, president of the Čajetina Municipal Assembly and Zoran Stamatović, director of the Festival.
Vladimir Vasiljevic resigned from the position of executive director of the festival a few days ago, for moral reasons, in solidarity with colleagues who are boycotting the Zlatibor festival.
Miroslav Lekić said in the media that the festival has a Steering Committee and a Program Council, but it is impossible to find out who their members are.
Everything for the impression
Until recently, the Zlatibor Festival was talked about as a selection event for our representative for the Oscar award, but it turned out that this was not true, that is, that information was given during its promotion, which should have made it big and significant in the eyes of the people.
The impression is that the founders of NAFFIT have so far been mostly concerned with creating an impression about the festival, and that for the essence, for what the designation "national" obliges them to do, it's as if they didn't have time. Because the festival program is still unknown, as is who chooses the films.
That is why it seems that the filmmakers are right when they say that this festival serves for politicians to renew their assortment of patriotic stories, that public money is spent on what is produced by the SNS team, that this is who knows what attempt to smear the eyes of the public with the pretense of normalization, and that this festival will not help domestic film in the slightest.
Gaga's Festival
In the public, NAFFIT is also called Gaga's festival, after its initiator, director Predrag Antonijević, known for the film "Dara from Jasenovac".
It was forgotten that this would not be the first national festival. Namely, the first national film festival in Serbia was initiated by the Film Center of Serbia and was held in Novi Sad in 2007. It is impossible that the associates of the Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković did not come across this information, so he, a year ago, promoting the festival in Zlatibor, highlighted Gaga Antonijević in a tone as if he brought Serbia what it never had and for which Serbia should be grateful to him.
In the statement by which the Association of Film Directors calls for a boycott of NAFFIT, it is written that the festival is organized by "almost all the closest collaborators of the initiator of the festival and his private production company", as well as that "along with this, and the fact that his hometown was chosen as the venue, it becomes obvious that this festival, before anything else, is a political reward for the initiator himself." So to Gaga Antonijević.
Let us remind you that Antonijević's colleagues publicly reproach him for asking on TV pink whether FDU should be abolished, since everything you need to know about film directing can be learned in two years of the course anyway.
