As "Vreme" finds out, Belgrade City Assembly will vote at today's session (May 20) on new rules for the city's cultural manifestations, and therefore for Bitef.
To put it simply, according to these new rules, the Festival Board selects and appoints an artistic director, and Bitef Theater, as the producer of the festival, signs a contract with him. Until now, all this was the responsibility of the Assembly.
With such authority, says Svetozar Cvetković now, "The board will meet on Wednesday and make a decision that the person who will create the artistic program of this year's Bitef will be the director Miloš Lolić. We have finalized all agreements with him, and only this session of the City Assembly and their decision on the new rules were awaited."
New rules
According to these new rules, he says, "the mayor will no longer conclude a contract with the artistic director, but the producer, which seems more natural", says Cvetković.
He adds that the Bitef Board will also propose a new date for the festival.
"Instead of the previous date in September, we will ask for a move to the last ten days of November. Given that this year's Fest and the Magnificent Seven and the March Festival will take place in September, it is better for us to move to November, especially since it will give us more time to prepare the program," says Svetozar Cvetković.
He notes that "the new term is a proposal only for this year, and does not mean that it is forever",
Thus, after three months, the crisis in which Bitef found itself, through no fault of its own, was overcome after the City Assembly decided not to extend its mandate at the end of February. Nikita Milivojević and his team, the previous artistic director, and she did not appoint a new one under the pretext of waiting for a change in the rules on city events.
Miloš Lolic
Miloš Lolić (born in 1979 in Belgrade) is a director with a successful career in European theaters. Five years ago, he became one of 30 people who were awarded honorary Austrian citizenship "for outstanding contributions to the interests of the country", which is awarded to artists, athletes, scientists and businessmen.
He is the winner of numerous awards, among which are the prestigious Austrian "Nestroj" Grand Prix of the Borštnikovo sročenie festival, the award for direction of the Festival Bayerische Theatertage Augsburg, and for the play Blood weddings he also received the "Politica" award for directing at BITEF in 2012. He directed numerous plays in Belgrade, and Nušić's repertoire is currently Mr. Dollar at the National Theater.
