The autumn season of the local cultural scene began with a request for a change Minister Nikola Selaković, and it continued in that direction.
Employees of the National Theatre, at least most of them, publicly, at a meeting on October 11 in front of their building on Republic Square, demanded the dismissal of Minister Selaković. They consider him responsible because, on the proposal of the Ministry of Culture, Dragoslav Bokan, a director with a criminal past, became the chairman of their Board of Directors, who now manages the National Theater instead of management, but in a way that destroys the employees' freedom of thought and action.
Request of cinematographic associations
Today, October 27, the resignation of Minister Selaković was requested by six associations of Serbian film artists, directors, actors and producers. They are asking for his resignation because of his actions against cinematography and culture in general in the Republic of Serbia, and specifically, because of the violation of numerous laws of this country.
They asked for the resignation in a letter addressed personally to Minister Selaković.
It was signed by the Association of Film Directors of Serbia, the Association of Film Producers of Serbia, the Association of Film Actors of Serbia, the Serbian Association of Cinematographers SAS, the Association of Documentary Filmmakers of Serbia DokSrbija, and the Association of Film Artists of Serbia. They make up the largest and most relevant part of Serbian cinematography.
Enormous damage was caused.
At the beginning of the letter, they inform him that the Ministry he manages, "during 2025, did not provide systemic support for domestic artistic creation, not implementing competitive co-financing of Serbian film production, as provided by laws and contracts, as well as co-financing of the most important film festivals, promotion and education in the field of cinematography."
"This caused enormous damage to the annual domestic production, film authors, artists and workers, international cooperation, the position and reputation of Serbian cinematography in Europe and the world, the extent of which will only be seen in the time to come."
These laws have been violated.
Then they reminded him of the laws of the Republic of Serbia, which he did not respect.
"Article 73 of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia unequivocally stipulates that the Republic of Serbia encourages and assists the development of culture and art, while the Law on Ministries determines that the Ministry of Culture, headed by you, is responsible for the development and promotion of culture and artistic creation, and that it is required to provide the material basis for this purpose.
The Law on the Budget for 2025 prescribes specific amounts of financial resources, while the Law on Culture and the Law on Cinematography define domestic filmmaking as one of the general state interests and prescribe regular annual competitive financing of projects in cinematography.
In spite of all this, in 2025, not a single competition for co-financing domestic film production was held, although the Law on Cinematography requires that two must be announced, which violated the Law and made the work and existence of the Film Center of Serbia pointless.
Competitions of the Ministry for financing or co-financing of projects in the field of film and other audio-visual activities, which provide support for film festivals in Serbia, as well as support for promotion and education in the field of film, were also not held.
At the same time, the Ministry under your leadership did not find it necessary to inform our associations, film professionals and the professional public, at our earlier requests and in accordance with the Law, about the reasons behind the above, nor about the measures it is taking to prevent or reduce the damage caused by this kind of behavior to the cultural sector in 2025.
In all the mentioned ways, deliberately destroying the decades-long tradition and continuity of contemporary creativity, the Ministry with you at the head, among others, violated the Law on General Administrative Procedure and the Law on State Administration."
Three questions
Based on that, they asked him the right questions, the answers to which relate to the entire cultural scene. Of course, on the condition that the minister answers them.
"1) for what purpose are the funds prescribed by the Law on the Budget for the year 2025 for culture, i.e. cinematography in the Republic of Serbia, used?
2) Who and according to what criteria decided that these funds should be repurposed, that is, cinematography as a state public interest should not be financed at all in 2025?
3) Why did the relevant Ministry and you as a minister not stand up for the protection of domestic cinematography and culture?"
They ended the letter with the following message:
"Given that it is now completely obvious that the Ministry of Culture under your leadership did not work in favor of artistic creativity in the Republic of Serbia, but against it, that it violated numerous laws of the Republic and completely called into question the meaning of its existence, we call you to account, and before you cause additional damage to the culture of this country, we demand that you immediately submit your irrevocable resignation from the position of Minister of Culture in the Government of the Republic of Serbia."
This October, "Vreme" celebrates and honors - as much as 35 percent discount for our 35th birthday! Valid for semi-annual and annual subscriptions. Subscribe now!
