This year's International Film Festival - FEST is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and will be held from February 25 to March 6 in Belgrade, in 12 cinemas, produced by the Belgrade Festivals Centre - CEBEF. The slogan presented at the visual solution of this year's festival, which reads ‘New Brave World’, is a word play in relation to the slogan of the first FEST held in 1971, which read ‘Brave New World’.
Speakers at the press conference on the occasion of the jubilee FEST were Ivan Karl, the City Secretary for Culture, Jugoslav Pantelić, artistic director of FEST, Damir Handanović, acting director of the Belgrade Festivals Centre and Dragoslav Fredi Stanisavljević, director of RTS Music Production.
Ivan Karl, the City Secretary for Culture, stated: ‘We have a very respectable and serious programme, we will have a significantly larger number of screenings to compensate for the temporary absence of the Sava Centre. During FEST, the continuation of the edition of the ‘FEST's 50’, prepared by the Library of the City of Belgrade, will be promoted; these are the book about Dinko Tucaković written and edited by Milan Nikodijević, the book about Nebojša Đukelić prepared by Maja Medić and the second edition of the book about Emir Kusturica by Goran Gocić. The Post of Serbia has also published an edition of postage stamps - the ‘FEST's 50’.
Jugoslav Pantelić, artistic director of FEST, stated: ‘At 421 film screenings, the audience will be able to see 88 feature films within six programme sections at this jubilee festival. Two short films will also be shown, and we will have the opportunity to see the premiere of the first two episodes of the second season of the "Klan" series. As part of the Main Competition Programme in the race for the Belgrade Victor award this year, there are 20 films from France, Germany, the USA, Romania, Russia, Italy, Poland, Greece, Slovenia, Northern Macedonia, Australia, Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia.’
‘I am honored to announce that this year's programme section for film professionals FEST Forward is once again becoming part of FEST. The Industry Programme will be held at the Yugoslav Film Archive in the presence of over 80 professionals from abroad, in cooperation with the Film Centre of Serbia. Ticket prices will remain at last year's level, from 300 to 500 RSD,’ said Damir Handanović, acting director of the Belgrade Festivals Centre - CEBEF.
At the opening of the 50th FEST on February 25 in the Kombank Hall, the film ‘As Far as I Can Walk’, directed by Stefan Arsenijević, will be shown. This will be the Serbian premiere of the film that won numerous awards, including the Crystal Globe for Best Feature Film at the prestigious 55th Karlovy Vary Film Festival, as well as Best Actor Award and a Special Mention for Director of Photography at the same festival.
The 50th FEST will showcase a large number of films from around the world, including a number of those whose festival screening will be a unique opportunity to be seen on the big screen.
Among the filmmakers whose films are screened at the 50th FEST are Pedro Almódovar, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dario Argento, Paul Schrader, Paul Thomas Anderson, Gaspar Noé, Jacques Audiard, Dušan Milić, Ursula Meier, Nanni Moretti, François Ozon, Stefan Arsenijević, Audrey Diwan, Miloš Pusić, the D'Innocenzo brothers, Kenneth Branagh and many other well-known filmmakers as well as new ones whose films we will remember this season by.
FEST will present the films that won major awards at the two most important world festivals, in Cannes and Venice last year - the film TITANE, directed by Julia Ducournau, the winner of Palme d'Or in Cannes, and the film HAPPENING directed by Audrey Diwan, which earned the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the 78th Venice Film Festival.
The Belgrade Victor Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film Art will be given to eminent personalities from the Serbian film industry - director Emir Kusturica and actor Predrag Miki Manojlović.
The 50th FEST will close with a concert by the RTS Symphony Orchestra, which will perform music from famous film hits such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman, Harry Potter and other films, composed by one of the greatest film composers of our time, John Williams.
The postFESTum programme, as a great opportunity for those who did not manage to see the films they wanted during the Festival, will be held for seven days this year.
Tickets for FEST are on sale from February 4 at the box offices of the halls where the films are screened, as well as online via the tickets.rs website. The programme of the 50th FEST can be downloaded from the fest.rs website: https://www.fest.rs/upload/document/fest_program.pdf
