About 1000 signatories of all professions of film workers sent five requests to the Film Center of Serbia, requesting that the members of the commission that decide on the candidates of the contest be elected according to the law
"According to Article 18 of the Law on Cinematography, only prominent artists and experts in the field of cinematography can be members of competition commissions. However, we noticed that in previous contests, this legal regulation was not fully respected, which calls into question the transparency and professionalism of the decision-making process", it is stated in the first of five requests sent to the Film Center of Serbia, one can say the entire profession.
The request requesting "that at future contests of the Film Center of Serbia, commission members be chosen exclusively from the ranks of prominent artists and experts in the field of cinematography, as prescribed by the Law on Cinematography", was signed by six associations: the Association of Film Artists of Serbia, the Association of Film Directors of Serbia, the Association of Screenwriters of Serbia, the Association of Film Producers of Serbia, the Association of Film Animators of Serbia and the AVP Protection of Serbia (Organization for the Protection of the Rights of Audiovisual Producers).
Specific examples
About a thousand signatures of film authors, cinematographers, screenwriters, producers, stage designers, costume designers, animators, and documentarians were collected.
One of the concrete examples of their dissatisfaction is the following:
The members of the commission that decided on the last competition for FCS feature film were Marko Novaković (RTS), Igor Onič (film distributor), Filip Kovačević (director), Slaviša Čurović (actor) and Ivan Micić (film distributor).
"As we stated, the law states that only prominent artists and experts in the field of cinematography can be members of the commission," Srđan Dragojević, director and screenwriter, told the "Vremena" portal.
"There are two distributors in this commission. They are certainly experts in their field, but films should be judged by professionals from other professions," he says and points out that Slaviša Čurović is more of a Montenegrin actor than a Serbian one, and that he acted in Little Buddha to Danilo Bećković's film, which won money at this competition.
In this context, perhaps it should be added that according to IMDb, director Filip Kovačević (1989) has made two short films and one feature film, and that the next one should be expected next year, and that the status of a prominent artist required by law is still waiting for him.
Let's remind you that out of 59 films, the current commission chose four: Boy's room signed by screenwriter Ranko Božić and director Miloš Avramović, 2030 screenwriter Dimitrija Vojnov and director Danilo Bećković, Anger screenwriter David Jakovljević and director Siniša Cvetić, and Sports heart scriptwriter Đorđe Milosavljevć and director Milan Karadžić.
Everything according to the law
In addition to the expertise of the commission members, the film workers ask the FCS for the following:
That the members of the commissions be elected on the proposal of professional associations in the field of film art and industry, in order to ensure expertise, objectivity and trust in the work of the commissions.
That the composition of each competition commission, as well as the biographies of the members, be published on the official website of the Film Center of Serbia before the commission's work begins, in order to ensure transparency and public trust.
That the evaluation of the projects is carried out exclusively on the basis of artistic and professional criteria from Article 18 of the Law on Cinematography, with the professional evaluation contained in the decisions and explanations for each submitted project that participates in the competition.
To carry out an evaluation of the success of the competition commissions in the past 10 years, in order to determine how much the decisions of the commissions contributed to the development of Serbian cinematography, how much the projects supported in the competitions achieved success at the domestic and international level, how many films were made, and whether the criteria were applied fairly and consistently.
The signatories of this request expect FCS to "show maximum commitment to fairness, transparency and respect for legal norms in future tenders."
On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Đura Daničić, one of the greatest philologists and linguists among Serbs, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts declared 2025 the Year of Đura Daničić
This year, Beldocs will be held as always, in May, unlike other festivals in Belgrade, which got some new dates.
The edition "Freedom begins between covers" published by "Laguna" seems to have been compiled for today's Serbian "Troublesome Time" of blockades and protests.
The three-story underground garage in Skerlićeva Street is 10 meters from the depot of the National Library of Serbia, warns the Plenum of this institution and tries to save the entire written treasure of Serbia with a petition
Goran Vasić, the acting director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, sent without the knowledge of the employees a proposal to revoke the status of a cultural monument for the General Staff complex, they claim, and that is why they are asking those who put him in that place, the Government of Serbia, to replace him
Anyone who condemns the regime's targeting of people from the media, the non-governmental sector, the opposition and universities, must not agree to this targeting of RTS editors and journalists either.
The government of Đur Mazut is "counter-revolutionary", focused on retaliation and state and street violence against opponents of the regime
Depriving Dejan Ilić, an intellectual with an impeccable life and work biography, of his freedom, without the slightest meaningful reason, is just one of the brutal indicators that the regime has turned against its own citizens and is entering a phase of terror
Vučić and Šešelj: Where I stopped, you continue
The return of radical violence subscribeThe 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
