Ministry of Culture invested 17 million dinars in National Film and TV Festival - NAFFIT 2026.
It will be the second edition of this festival, founded in 2024, so that Serbia, like Croatia in Pula for years, will have a national festival.
The festival is held in Zlatibor, as suggested by director Predrag Gaga Antonijević, one of its founders.
Photo: TanjugSigning of the contract in Zlatibor
During the signing of the contract with the director of the Zlatibor Cultural Center Danica Jevtić Šišović, Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković pointed out that the guest of honor this year will be Russian cinematography and "that Zlatibor, as one of the capitals of Serbian tourism outside Belgrade, is not only there for recreation but also for spiritual upliftment".
Competition announcement
"Serbia, as a country with enviable cinematography, lacked a festival like this, and it got it," Selaković said, reports Tanjug.
He reminded that last year Hungarian cinematography was the guest of honor and that NAFFIT also gathered Hollywood stars and announced that this year Russian cinematography will be the guest of honor at the Festival.
"I am convinced that we will host many notable figures from the world of great Russian cinema, which is world-class cinematography, and thus succeed in raising this young national festival of ours to a significantly higher level."
At Zlatibor, Minister Selaković expressed the hope that Film Center of Serbia competitions will be announced soon.
"Also, I express the hope that by the time the festival itself takes place, we will have tenders from the Film Center of Serbia announced, because it is very important to us that our cinematography continues to create in the time ahead, especially after a turbulent period with major social fractures in which cinematography has also become a focal point in the field of Serbian culture," said Selaković.
Great movies are being made.
On that occasion, the minister pointed out that great films are being shot in Serbia this year, and he especially pointed out that the filming of Predrag Gaga Antonijević's great achievement - the film "Sretenje" about the epoch of the Serbian revolution, the First and Second Serbian Uprising - is also being completed in Zlatibor.
Selaković did not mention whether the eventual announcement of the competition means that 53 films have been completed, which is why FCS announced in March that it will not announce a competition this year, because it spent 13 million euros on them.
"The joint efforts of the FCS and the Ministry of Culture are currently focused on completing those projects," the FCS announced at the time.
The public never learned the titles of those 53 films.
By the way, Minister Selaković is absolutely right that great films are made in Serbia - huge awards at festivals confirm that. Although they do not have the support of the state.
NAFFIT
Last year's NAFFIT, which was the first edition of the national film festival, seven film associations boycotted – the entire film industry. They assessed that it is inappropriate for the state to start a domestic film festival considering that it does not invest in domestic cinematography.
NAFFIT "cannot be a substitute for the collapsed system of support for domestic cinematography, which was denied the rights guaranteed by law by the state authorities in 2025", it was written in the announcement of the Association of Film Producers, which was also stated in the announcements of all other associations.
It is expected that this year will be the same.
Last year, seven Serbian films and three Hungarian films were shown at NAFFIT, which were honored guests of the festival. Of the Hollywood stars mentioned by Selaković, there was only Lolita Davidović.
The program of this year's edition of NAFFIT, which has just received 17 million dinars, is not known. It is not even known who the selector is. Not even an exact date, but it should have been like last year at the beginning of September. NAFFIT does not have a website.
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