The festival remake in February, the introduction of festival artistic directors, fairer distribution of the budget, are some of the announcements for 2026 by the secretary of culture of Belgrade, Jelena Medaković
The experience of 2025 allows for the fear that there will probably not be some usual festivals this year, and that holding most of them is questionable
"This is a new festival, and it has nothing to do with Festa, nor is it its replacement," says Igor Stanković, one of the initiators of the Belgrade Film Festival, which will show the latest mainstream titles from January 30 to February 6.
The Serbian co-production The Disappearance of Josef Mengele became part of the FAF program instead of the Fest. Producer Miloš Đukelić describes this film by Kirill Serebrenikov as a universal story about a crime of conviction, which we justify with a higher goal.
Secretary of Culture Jelena Medaković believes that the next Fest should be held in February, and that the Bitef festival has no legal basis to be held this year. At the same time, Miloš Lolić is preparing the guerilla Bitef for December
This year's 59th Bitef should start in about fifteen days, and the Fest in less than a month and a half. However, they are silent about them. It seems like they are waiting for time to run out for them
The new secretary of culture of the City of Belgrade, Jelena Medaković, announces the changes in the atmosphere in culture this "inconvenient year", and believes that Bitef and Fest should be helped to remain great festivals
The 57th Bemus is in progress, but Bitef and Festus are silent. What is Bemus' recipe? The president of the Bemus Committee says that the festival received the same budget as Fest and Bitef
If the City Assembly agrees, the Fest will be held from December 21 to 28. It would be the only way to forget about everything that is hindering the realization of this year's edition
At the last meeting of the Fest Board, Miroslav Mogorović, adviser for the program concept, and Ivan Aranđelović, associate in program selection, were elected. The only thing missing is for the City Assembly to decide who will be the producer, so that the concrete implementation of this year's Fest can begin
September will be the month of festivals in Belgrade this year: Fest, Bitef, March Festival, "Seven Magnificent"... Unless the City Assembly decides that some of them will take a break this year
The changes to the rules of the city's cultural manifestations, which were announced by the City Assembly back in March, are unlikely to be implemented. Will there be time to implement them until September when Bitef and Fest start, that is, will they be held at all
The Assembly of the City of Belgrade appointed board members for the seven main festivals in the city. Dušan Kovačević heads the Fest Board
After the postponement of the traditional Fest, students in the blockade decided to hold their own film festival - Blockade Fest. What did the students prepare for the visitors of the festival from March 9 to 16
The Fest international film festival has been postponed, and this March the students are organizing a blockingFEST
"Vreme" has learned that, like the Fest, this year's March Festival will not be able to take place as scheduled. The reason is the same: the City Assembly did not do its part
"I don't understand who needed it", comments the founder of "Seven Magnificent" Zoran Popović on the decision to hold the Fest at the same time as the European Feature Documentary Film Festival
The director of the Film Center of Serbia (FCS) Ivan Karl reacted to the comment "Postponing the Fest: Making personnel dice" by the journalist and editor of the weekly "Vreme" Sonja Ćirić. We publish his response in full
The Fest board has decided that the festival will no longer be held in February but in September. One gets the impression that the solution of this secondary problem is actually just an announcement of the solution of the essential one
Apart from Bitef, this year Belgrade will host another international festival in September - Festa. By the decision of the Board of this festival, the traditional February term of the Festa was abolished
About twenty days until the traditional date for the start of the Fest, the new program selector is not known, and therefore neither is the program. It is only known that the Fest will be postponed due to security reasons
Video library will first of all be remembered as an interesting and brave attempt to offer something different within the framework of Serbian cinema, although at the same time as a film that failed to fully develop the considerable potential it had
The 52nd Fest ended with the presentation of awards and the screening of the film "The Russian Consul", dedicated to Žarko Laušević. The best film is the Russian "Master"
The most important film festival in Serbia starts on Friday, and its selector Jugoslav Pantelić tells "Vreme" that the selection is colorful. He particularly emphasizes the fact that about half of the films were purchased for the festival
Žarko Laušević's last film "The Russian Consul" closes this year's Fest. Apart from this film, there are three more domestic productions on the program
October is a better time for the Fest, the end of the summer should be used for the national festival, and it is better to have fewer film competitions so that the films get more initial capital, announced Ivan Karl
Aleksandar Šapić, visiting the renovated "Dadov" today, announced the independence of the Fest. He explained it by the need for Belgrade to have a better festival than Sarajevo. He also announced that Serbian films and Serbian actors will be on the program of such a Fest
