All that could be done to this year's edition FEST, BITEF , the March Festival and the "Seven Magnificent" festival are realized in September, it was done. All that remains is for the Culture Secretariat of Belgrade to do its part, which has been waiting for since the end of March.
City Secretary for Culture Nataša Mihailović Vacić then announced that the rules of those events will be changed at one of the next sessions of the Belgrade City Assembly because they are "old and out of step with the times".
Announcement of changes
"All our manifestations have rules that are outdated and must be adjusted to the real situation and improved. We want to more precisely define each manifestation and determine its specificity, which will be discussed at one of the next sessions," said Nataša Mihailović Vacić to "Večernji Novosti".
That has not happened yet, nor is it announced when it will. It is not known what it means to "more precisely define" a festival that is already, for example, a theater or film festival. Maybe - what is appropriate to show and what is not?
Two years ago, the Assembly of the City of Belgrade introduced new rules for 14 cultural manifestations of importance for Belgrade. Thanks to them, the government gained the opportunity to influence the artistic and programming concept of those institutions.
Namely, then it was decided to add an annex to the decision from 2021, according to which festivals can have a selector in addition to an artistic director, according to which the selector is chosen by the City Assembly from among "established personalities in the field of culture".
Photo: PromoAudience at Bitef
However, that decision was not implemented. The festivals did not have selectors, so the artistic director was also a selector - with the exception of Nikita Milivojević, who formed the selection team of Bitef.
New problems
If the change announced by the city secretary this March refers to that, to the appointment of a selector, then new problems are looming.
The selector's job is to choose the program. There are four months until September, when Bitef takes place, and from this year, Fest and the "Magnificent Seven". The question is whether festivals that are prepared for a year will be able to be organized in four months. After all, that's why The Board of Bitef proposed to the City Assembly to return the forfeited mandate to the previous artistic director Nikita Milivojević, so that he could complete the preparation of the program for September.
Then, considering that the Bitef and Fest teams claim that the new programs are being prepared as if everything is fine, what will happen in the situation if they get selectors soon? Will they take over the already prepared program, that is, someone else's program, or will they delete it? In the latter case, will they be forced to make a program of plays and films that are not at the level of reputation of Bitef and Fest?
March Festival of documentary and short films has long had a program for this year's edition. And if the City Assembly had appointed a new Festival Board on time, it could have been realized from March 25 to 29, when it was announced. It was expected that the City Assembly would set a new date for April, because it depends on it, but - it didn't.
As we learn, the March Festival Committee will meet immediately after the Easter holidays to decide how to proceed.
The only thing that is obvious to everyone is that they have no way to encourage the City Assembly to fulfill its part of the obligations towards those it founded.
