Dragan Jeličić, the selector of this year's Fest, says that the Festival Board has adopted the program that he proposed to them, and he hopes for a good one. In order to achieve this, he insists that both parties leave the politicization of FESTA
Party will be held from October 2 to 11, about a hundred films are expected, the main program will be in the Sava Center, and ticket sales will begin on September 2 - the information is Dragan Jelicic selector of this year's Film Festival in Belgrade, considers the upcoming edition to be the most important at the moment.
This region's most popular international film festival has not been held for two and a half years - since March 2024. "That is why it is personally important to me that this year's festival is not a review, but a festival of the best and most important new films in the world," says Jeličić.
Selection accepted.
At the session held last week, the new Fest Board accepted the selection of Dragan Jeličić.
"There are 140 films in the shortlist," he says.
"I would like there to be 107 films at this year's Fest, like in 1976 when I was in the auditorium of this festival for the first time."
"Now we are in the contracting phase, as well as harmonizing the dates for the festival program. I expect that in the last days of August we will have a printed flyer with the complete program, as well as that then, before the start of ticket sales, we will have the first media conference," says Jeličić.
Budget
The conclusion of the contract is most difficult with a small budget. Dragan Jeličić says that they have 400.000 euros available
"That's an extremely small budget for more than a hundred international films. For the sake of comparison, the just-ended Pula Festival had two million euros at its disposal."
The news that the film "Zlatni rez 42/Deca Kozare" will open this year's Fest, as Lordan Zarfanović, the film's director, announced at the end of June, is only unofficial. Dragan Jeličić says that "the Board did not discuss it".
No politics, please!
Dragan Jeličić emphasizes that he does not want "any politicization of the festival, from one side or the other. I hope that the guests of the Fest will understand that, especially the local ones. The Fest is exclusively a film festival and should not and must not have anything to do with politics. The interference of politics affects both the Fest and its audience."
Let us remind you that it is impossible to watch the Fest without knowing that the president of its Board, Jelena Medaković, is the Secretary for Culture of the City of Belgrade, and that the actor and producer Lazar Ristovski is close to SNS, one of the members.
Jeličić hopes that the eventual election campaign will not distract the public's attention from the festival.
He believes that the boycott of "Festa Intro" this February, motivated by politics, did a lot of damage to the audience.
"Fest intro" was a two-day event organized as a tribute to the traditional Fest's February term. It was boycotted at the invitation of the students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade due to dissatisfaction with the state of domestic cinematography, and above all, because Fest Board changes and setting up a new one.
Does Dragan Jeličić expect that the October Fest will also be boycotted?
"I just know that the Belgrade audience loves the Fest. And that there will be three quarters of films on the Fest program that will not make it to the cinemas. That's why I insist that from October 2 to 11 there will be only the Fest and nothing else," says Dragan Jeličić.
It will be the 53rd Fest, although it has been 56 years since the festival existed, but in 1993 and 1994 it was not held due to sanctions, and he was absent last year due to, let's put it that way, the disagreement of the members of the Board about the date of the festival.
Only in August: Save three thousand dinars on the annual subscription to the digital edition of "Vremena"! _Take advantage of the discount here and support independent journalism.
More than 20 festivals were not held last year and this year, the FCS has not announced competitions for two years, the Ministry of Culture rejects projects of art associations, the removal of successful directors and the appointment of people who do not promise... all this is evidence that we are living a culture of destruction, according to the research of the Center for Cultural Studies
In the Viennese auction house Doroteum, a painting by the Croatian author Vlaho Bukovac was sold for half a million euros, it will soon be exhibited in Zagreb, and the public there does not know the name of the buyer
The play "Professional" is performed for the 50th time. "It is incredible that in forty years - since writing about the then government and communism, little has changed," says its author, Dušan Kovačević.
The world-famous "Aesthetics of Film", memoirs by Srećko Džamonja, books by Aleksandar Dimitrijević, award-winning novels and other new Clio publications that will not be at the Book Fair
The performance of "Balkan Spy" was canceled last night just before the meeting of the Student List at Slavija - due to the indisposition of the actors. "I am not indisposed," says the director of the play, Tatjana Mandić Rigonat
There is, literally, no difference between the one who claims it is day in the middle of the night, or the one who claims to be a giraffe, from the claims we read on billboards: that Vučić is working to unify Serbs and that Serbia is doing better and better day by day.
The pre-election arrests due to the alleged "overthrow of the state" testify to the regime's panic. The bad news for them is - they can't arrest the whole people who decided to defend themselves from progressive beatings and election theft
The ring that tightens around Ćaciland Student list is getting narrower. Because there are more and more spoiled people who see the false prophet for what he is: a street obscener who is fighting Serbia
The archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
