This year's Fest will start on February 23 and will last until March 3 - the Board of this largest international film festival in Serbia decided. And yet, we should not be surprised if it turns out differently.
Because, Ivan Karl, acting director of the Film Center of Serbia, towards the end of last year, speaking about the plans for this year, recalled his proposal from the time when he was Belgrade's secretary for culture, that the Fest should be moved to October.
"The festival would then have a more attractive, stronger and more favorable program." If we think that the Fest will be competitive, attractive and run a race with many festivals in the area, we should think about changing the date, sooner or later - he said and clarified that October coincides with the season in Hollywood and our premiere films, that the titles with Cannes Festival still current, especially those from Venice, which ends in September.
"When someone saves you a film from Cannes or Venice for six or eight months until the Fest, the price goes up, and the effect doesn't have to be on par with the price, because the audience could already see that film somewhere on the platform."
He also announced the need for a new film festival. According to him, although there are already many festivals, Serbia lacks the national one.
"The national festival at the beginning or the end of the summer should be an annual cross-section of national cinematography with the awarding of awards in all important categories." Now we are on the way to that," Karl believes.
And, as the third change for Serbian cinematography this year, he announced fewer competitions for new films.
"In the past, there were a little more competitions than needed," he said
appealed to the commissions dealing with project analysis to choose as few films as possible with greater support.
"Today, if a project gets 20 million dinars, that's a lot of money, but it's not enough for that film to be made." I think it's better if fewer projects get more funding, because that's a guarantee that they'll be filmed."
"An average of 40 million per film is a good starting capital."
Karl estimated that for Serbia, taking into account the number of cinemas and the habits of viewers, the optimal number is ten to 12 domestic films per year, with an average number of about 100.000 tickets sold per title, that is, about one million to 1.200.000 viewers. He noted that domestic big hits, "mega movies with millions of visitors", happen once every 20 years. He reminded that "Tight Skin" had over a million viewers in 1982, and a similar number was achieved two decades later by "Zona Zamfirova", with the recent success of "Toma".
