As "Vreme" exclusively learns, the executive director of the National Film and Television Festival - NAFFIT in Zlatibor, Vladimir Vasiljević, resigned.
He resigned for moral reasons, and without anyone's pressure, at great risk to his career. Because he opposed the National Festival and those who founded it.
The resignation of Vladimir Vasiljević is transmitted in its entirety:
"When I received the invitation and offer to be the director of the national festival last year, I was honestly delighted and eager to contribute with all my experience and knowledge to the festival that will celebrate creativity in our country."
Today, when the state takes away the integrity of festivals, and our mother house, the Film Center of Serbia, cancels funding, I cannot and do not want to participate in a project that receives funds from the same state to the detriment of everything else.
In the end, I want this festival to exist, but in a state that will be the state of all its citizens, and that remains my wish."
Call for a boycott of NAFFIT
Vladimir Vasiljević is the producer. IMDb says that he is best known as the producer of the film "Dara from Jasenovac", and the director of the series "State Servant" and "Bunar". The author and producer of all these three titles is Predrag Gaga Antonijević.
Gaga Antonijević is one of the trump cards of SNS and the initiator of the foundation of NAFFIT.
That fact was one of the reasons why the Association of Film Directors of Serbia called on the film and cultural public to boycott NAFFIT.
Let's remind: AFRS believes that this festival was founded without the insight of the professional public and representative and relevant film associations in the country, but that's why "almost all the closest collaborators of the initiator of the festival and his private production company participate in its initiation, organization and committees", say the directors in the announcement, referring to the director Predrag Gaga Antonijević.
They also note 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." So to Gaga Antonijević.
Vladimir Vasiljević resigned from the post of executive director of NAFFIT after the aforementioned announcement by the Association of Directors and the Association of Screenwriters of Serbia.
