GUESTS OF THE 44TH FEST

Special guests of the 44^th FEST are Spanish actress Victoria Abril and US film director John McTiernan, who will both be presented with the Belgrade Victor for Creative Achievement.

Famous Russian film director Pavel Lungin will serve as President of the Main Competition Jury. To our great satisfaction Lungin and McTiernan have agreed to give master classes: open call for participation at the master classes is available on this website.

One of the festival guests is Kalieaswari Srinivasan who plays the leading female role in the 2015 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Dheepan. In this film she portrays a young woman from Sri Lanka who ‘teams up’ with a former Tamil soldier and an orphan child to pose together as a family, in order to immigrate to France.

The crew of the film Newcomer, led by the renowned actor Anthony LaPaglia, director Kai Barry, actress Noemie Merlant and producer Srđan Stakić, will visit Serbia again, having filmed parts of the film in Belgrade and on the Mokra gora mountain a couple of years ago.

Five films from the MAIN COMPETITION programme will have their representatives at this year’s FEST. The US director of Iranian origin Ramin Bahrani will present his new film 99 Homes. German director Florian Gottschick and French director Elie Wajeman will present their second feature films, The Bright Night (Nachthelle) and The Anarchists (Les Anarchistes) respectively. Mexican actress Leidi Gutierrez is invited on the occasion of screening of the film The Chosen Ones (Las elegidas) in which she plays one of the leading roles. Two female directors, Hungarian Lili Horváth and Israeli Hadar Morag, are coming to Belgrade with their debut features The Wednesday Child (Szerdai gyerek) and Why Hast Thoy Forsaken Me (Lama Azavtani).  

This year’s SERBIAN FILM programme has encompassed the minority Serbian co-productions as well, which is why a number of film crews from the region is invited to the festival. Zvizdan, award winning Croatian film, will be presented by the director Dalibor Matanić, producer Ankica Jurić Tilić, principal actors Tihana Lazović and Goran Marković, and supporting actors Nives Ivanković and Slavko Sobin. Film On the Other Side (S one strane) premiered at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival where it received special mention from the Europa Cinema jury. It will be presented in Belgrade by its director Zrinko Ogresta, screenplay writer Mate Matišić, producer Ivan Maloča, and actress Ksenija Marinković! Coincidentally, Marinković plays leading or supporting roles in no less than five films which will be screened at this year's FEST! The comedy which is breaking the box office records in Croatia, Shooting Stars (Narodni heroj Ljiljan Vidić), will be presented by the actors Stjepan Perić, Dražen Čuček and Đorđe Kukuljica. Brother Deyan (Brat Dejan) is a film by a Georgian director Bakur Bakuradze shot entirely in Serbia and starring Marko Nikolić. The director himself will be one of the guests of the festival. The latest film by a renowned Serbian director Dejan Zečević is a SF film The Rift (Procep), shot in a Serbian-Korean-Slovenian co-production and starring Katarina Čas, Ken Foree and Monte Markham who will ‘take a bow’ together with Serbian cast and crew of the film.

Four directors from the competition programme FRONTIERS will present their films to the FEST audience: these are Pavel Khaleev from Russia (III), Nikias Chryssos from Germany (The Bunker / Der Bunker), Miguel Llansó from Spain (Crumbs) 

Turkish director Can Evrenol is invited for the screening of his horror film Baskin, as well as Slovenian director Tomaž Gorkič and producer Zoran Dževrdanović on the occasion of screening of their film Idila, both part of the THRILLS & KILLS programme.

Guests from Slovenia also include actor Dario Nožić Serini and producer Andrej Stritof (Juliette and Alpha Romeo / Julija in alfa Romeo), director Jan Cvitkovič and producer Aleš Pavlin (Šiška Deluxe).   

Chinese film The Angel: The Prescription for Life will be presented by its film crew led by the director Yang Hu, while Russian film Without Borders (Bez granits) will be represented by one of the directors Rezo Gigineishvili and actors Ravshana Kurkova, Inna Churikova and Oleg Basilashvili.

Among five members of the MAIN COMPETITION Jury there will be Norvegian writer and screenwriter Gjermund Gisvold and Croatian actor Janko Popović Volarić.

SERBIAN FILM Jury will also have several members from abroad: these are Romanian actress Cosmina Stratan, Croatian film director Nevio Marasović and German film journalist and festival programme director Bernd Buder.

Among foreign jury members there are also two journalists and film critics from Croatia: Marko Njegić is invited to the FRONTIERS Jury, while Stjepan Hundić will be a member of the NEBOJŠA ĐUKELIĆ AWARD Jury.