The Belgrade International Film Festival was conceived as an annual showcase of the best new films. The inaugural FEST was held under the slogan “A Brave New World”. It opened with the screening of the satirical black comedy war film MASH by Robert Altman, based on Richard Hooker’s novel of the same name. The program also included Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Easy Rider by Dennis Hopper, and films by Louis Bunuel, Eric Rohmer, Zivojin Pavlovic, and other notable filmmakers.
The first festival was a success, and FEST continued to grow in the years that followed. In the 1970s and 1980s, it attracted world-renowned directors such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sam Peckinpah, Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola, Miloš Forman, as well as major Hollywood stars like Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Robert De Niro, Kirk Douglas and Jack Nicholson.
The popularity and significance of FEST began to dwindle in the 1990s, mostly due to the international sanctions that were imposed against Yugoslavia at the time. It was not held in 1993 and 1994, and the 1997 edition was canceled mid-event as a sign of protest against police brutality. The festival began to grow again in the 2000s. Although it is not as big as it used to be, it still attracts a big number of movie buffs.
In 2015, FEST introduced an official film competition for the first time. The competition comprises four competitive programs: Main Competition (international selection), Serbian Film (mational selection), Frontiers (arthouse, controversial and subversive films) and Regional Competition (Nebojša Đukelić Award).
Since 2006, FEST has been hosting B2B Belgrade Industry Meetings. This is a special program for film industry professionals from European countries which are underrepresented in the European cultural space, as well as from non-European countries with strong European influence and heritage. B2B is a meeting point for directors, producers, screenwriters, distributors and other film industry professionals, where they can exchange ideas and experience, build new professional and creative relationships, and promote their work.
Photo: fest.rs
