Last year, the 59th was not held. Bitef, an international theater festival with world renown and a manifestation of importance for the city of Belgrade. On this occasion, Bitef theater, the long-time organizer of the Bitef festival, published a publication File B.I.T.E.F. without the intention to oppose someone or to convince someone of a certain position, but to present "a chronology of carelessness supported above all by documents and testimonies that caused certain events, the occurrence of which led to the devastation of Bitef". Although, thanks to the media, it is clear why there was no 59th Bitef, Dossier complements and documents this story.
U File, Bitef theater first reminds of 1967 when Mira Trailović and Jovan Ćirilov founded Bitef, then through the first problem in 2022, when the mandate of artistic director Professor Ivan Medenica ended, and the speech of director Milo Rau at the opening of the 58th Bitef, from whom the festival did not want to distance itself as the local authorities requested because Rau mentioned Volkswagen, Rio Tinto and Olaf Scholz, the story begins about what during the last year devastated Bitef.
Immediately after the aforementioned decision not to block Milo Rau's speech, the Bitef Theater was contacted by phone from the Culture Secretariat of the City Belgrade announced that in 2025, his funds for the production of plays will be reduced by 50 percent, from the previous ten million to five. It was not clear why the Bitef theater, the organizer of the festival, was being punished, and not the festival itself. "To our question about what is happening with the finances for the festival - the oral answer from the Secretariat was that the manifestation will be financed as before with 40 million dinars", they say in File.
For the next three months, the Secretariat for Culture did not respond to letters indicating that the mandate of the Festival Committee had expired in December 2024. Nikita Milivojević, the artistic director, was left with a human and professional dilemma as to whether to prepare the next festival, since his mandate also expired on February 28, 2025. The Secretariat did not make any announcements, it was only informally said that due to the failure to open the 58th Bitef, his mandate would not be extended "but that the authorities would let him go." to finish, and then they will see what they will do". The report on the realization of the 58th Bitefa was never adopted because the President of the Committee, Nataša Mihailović Vacić, then the Secretary of Culture of Belgrade, "due to her busy schedule, did not schedule a meeting of the competent body".
"Information about the reduction of financial support from the city coffers arrived one after the other. First, the budget of the Bitef festival was reduced by ten, and then by another ten million, so in 2025 the budget of the event was supposed to amount to 20 million dinars. It is interesting that the restrictive budget measures came with the signature of the still current president of the festival board (Secretary for Culture of the City of Belgrade), who, according to sound logic, like all members of the board of the event, should be committed to greater funds and a more stable position that lead."
It became clear that there were not enough funds and time for the festival that was supposed to be organized in September.
In March 2025, a new Festival Board was appointed (Svetozar Cvetković, president, Ana Veljković, Borka Golubović Trebješanin, Đorđe Kosić and Srđan Obrenović). Apart from the constitutive session, he never worked in full composition because the playwright Đorđe Kosić immediately submitted his resignation, which has not been accepted to this day. During that period, the Board was informed that an important change in the Manifestation Rules would soon follow, which for "Bitef Theater clearly meant exclusion from the artistic and organizational work, which was clearly the intention of the Secretariat for Culture. Aware of the lost time, the President of the Board, Svetozar Cvetković, tried to buy time by proposing an extension of the mandate to Nikita Milivojević and his team, but the informal and formal channels announced the message that it would not be accepted." The other option of Svetozar Cvetković was Miloš Lolić, and that seemed like an adequate choice, because it is about - for the position of artistic director - a young but internationally established theater author, but the formal consent and therefore the start of preparations for the 59th Bitef was held up by waiting for the aforementioned rules to be approved.
It was only on May 23, 2025 that the Decision on permanent manifestations in the field of culture of importance for the city of Belgrade was adopted, and the Bitef Rules in relation to that Decision were changed on June 27. With this change, the artistic director was abolished and the role of the Bitef Board was changed, which now "determines: the concept of the main, special and supporting programs", but also "if necessary, proposes collaborators who will propose the Bitef program to the Bitef Board". This means that he chooses an associate who will do the job of art director, so it is not clear why his function should have been abolished in the first place.
At that time, the Bitef festival worked without consulting the Bitef theater. "Aware of the fact that someone else, third or seventh can organize Bitef if the City of Belgrade entrusts it to him, and continuously exposed to violent arrogance and amazed by the amount of ignorance of the authorities in the Secretariat, we waited for the decision of who would be designated as the festival organizer and limited our activity to executive production - which was obviously the goal of the Secretariat. We also had the good intention of informing the now 'enthroned' Miloš Lolić, the president and members of the Board in detail about the problems that in front of them, but - as people say - we were not asked. We could and wanted to help because it was clear that an international could not be organized in three months theatrical festival, let's help because decades of work experience unequivocally show that there are not enough funds and that every postponement of the festival, firstly, disrupts continuity, and secondly, causes upheavals among domestic theaters that have heavily contracted premieres, guest appearances, and repertoire."
The first plans of the new Board failed due to lack of time, so the solution was to move the festival to the end of November. And then the games about the proposed repertoire of the 59th Bitef began.
U File further writes that "Miloš Lolić and his team, which included Ana Vujanović and Borisav Matić, proposed the repertoire of the 59th Bitef, but it was clear that the truncated four-member Board would not adopt the proposed program without interventions. Svetozar Cvetković questioned two performances: the work of the collective of students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts because he considered that the master play did not deserve participation in the main Bitef program, and Pelico Process directed by Milo Rau, which was disputed by the other members of the Board, but not for aesthetic reasons, but due to the general mention of Milo Rau's participation in the festival. Cvetković, after re-reading Rau's speech and changing his mind, tried to pacify the relations between the Board and the artistic team, initiating several meetings in order to reach a compromise". But, considering that the holding of the festival was also threatened in November, "Cvetković cut through the month-long polemics and discussions between the Board and the team of the artistic directorate and initiated a vote on the proposed repertoire of the 59th Bitefa". Accepting the proposal of six performances by the Lolić-Matić tandem, the president remained in the minority because three members of the Board voted against, explaining their decision by believing that Milo Rau is persona non grata in Serbia, and since he has already participated three times at Bitef, he doesn't have to again.
Cvetković resigned, a little later Borka Trebješanin Golubović also resigned, he convened another session at which Milo Rau's speech was analyzed, after which it was determined that there was no reason for the position on "banning entry to Serbia", the program was voted on again, but "the president of the Bitef Board remained in the minority. The decision of part of the Board members was obviously made much earlier and in some other place, it is written in File. Because of this, Miloš Lolić and Borisav Matić give up their work in the organization of the 59th Bitef, and Lolić also announces the hiring of a lawyer. "The moment of the withdrawal of Lolić and Matić as curators was the only moment when someone from the Bitef Theater, which until then had provided diligent and unquestioning administrative and logistical support, intervened and demanded the Board to make a decision on the proposal for mutual termination of cooperation so that there would be no lawsuit and litigation, which would bring multiple damage to the Bitef Theater, which wanted to help the manifestation of importance for the city of Belgrade, was the holder of the contract with Miloš Lolić. The fortunate circumstance is that both parties accepted our proposal."
The Bitef festival was left without the Board, the artistic team and without the 59th edition of the festival.
The news about the censorship of Lolic's team's program caused an avalanche of reactions, first from Milo Rau, and then from the world media.
Nataša Mihailović Vacić resigned from the position of secretary for culture of the City of Belgrade, which was a logical act, "but rather late considering the damage that was caused and the consequences of which, not only in Bitef, but also in other institutions and manifestations, will be removed for a long time".
The year 2026 began with the election of a new Board, but also with the first disruption of its work: it was informed that the Secretariat for Culture would not accept director Andraš Urban, regardless of his reputation and success, to be an associate who will choose the program of this year's Bitef. This made it clear to everyone that the Bitef Board does not have any autonomy, regardless of what is written in the Decision voted by the City Assembly itself. To be continued.
