INTERVIEW: JUGOSLAV PANTELIĆ, ART DIRECTOR OF FEST

•           What’s new on this year’s FEST?

The main novelty is FEST officially becoming a competition festival. We have three competition programs - the Main Program (international competition), the Serbian Film (domestic films in several categories) and the Frontiers programme. We have also introduced a screening at 9 AM in the Main Hall of the Sava Center. We also have three midnight screenings (films from the Frontiers programme).

•           Tell us something about the competition programme. Are there any favourites?

Fifteen films are competing for the Belgrade Victor Award. The competition is dominated by themes of growing up in atypical environments. All films have fulfilled very high criteria and have equal chances of winning. We wanted to have a strong competition programme to suit the taste of FEST’s very demanding public. I am happy to have the majority of the authors coming to Belgrade, to discuss their films with the journalists and the audience. We very lucky with a good production year and there are many favourites of both the spectators and the critics and that’s a dream situation for every artistic director and programming director. There are many such films on FEST and it makes me very happy.