Cinema City (film festival)


Cinema City is international film festival held annually in Novi Sad, Serbia.
During those eight ways of the Festival, Novi Sad becomes a festival city, with abundant film, music and academic programmes. The programme concept of the Festival intends for three segments – Cinema City Films, PRO and Music, all of which are carried out across 10 city locations.

Programme

The programme concept of the festival covers film, music, and academic programme, which take place at more than 10 locations in Novi Sad.
Cinema City Films is the main part of the festival, screening over 100 independent films every year. This programme is particularly focused on young film authors from the country, the region and the world. Competition selections include National Class, which screens best domestic achievements; Up to 10,000 bucks, which screens low-budget films from all over the globe; and Fresh Danube Films, which presents choice selection of best debut and second films signed by authors from the Danube region. The film programme also includes review selections, which every year honour different domestic and foreign directors and cinemas, Planet Rock selection for screening the best music documentaries, 360° for presenting the latest achievements of international indie production, Cinema City Shorts, and special screenings.
PRO selection of the Cinema City festival is intended for film authors and professionals from the country and the region. Its objective is to support education and networking and cooperation between the people who are the present and the future of domestic and regional cinema. This selection combines two parallel directions of film production in Serbia – domestic film production and foreign production service. PRO selection is composed of – an educational programme for young film authors and professionals from Serbia and the region, and – a platform for networking between professionals and for raising issues of special significance for domestic cinema.
Cinema City Music is the part of the festival that organizes fantastic opening and closing parties, concerts and accompanying music events during the festival, which has so far seen some of the most important domestic and foreign DJs and musicians. A special segment of the music programme is PLANET ROCK FESTIVAL, which is a result of cooperation between the Cinema City Association and HNS Creative. Planet Rock is an interdisciplinary festival, which aims to integrate several segments of alternative culture. The vision of this project is to provide original film and music platform in order to generate the framework for positioning Novi Sad as a new, creative entertainment centre that stimulates alternative and progressive authors.

Competition

National class presents achievements of national cinematography and premieres. All the films from this selection are competing for Cinema City awards. The festival will be host to many domestic film authors and film crews.
Fresh Danube Films The main objective of the Fresh Danube Films is to promote and support cultural diversity and creative synergy of cinematographies alongside Danube river. This program is a creative result of the last year project which was supported by the European Cultural Foundation.
Up to 10,000 bucks encompasses films made with the budget of less than $10,000. Authors from around the world have applied for this competition.

History

As of 2010, the Cinema City festival has been independently organized by the Cinema City Association. The organizational structure is presented through the Board of Directors and the Council of the festival, as well as a number of associates and friends who work throughout the year on development and organization of the festival and other projects of cultural significance. This festival is based on the concept of a festival city, which was promoted at Serbia Film Festival in 2007. Exit Association took over the organization of the festival in 2008, and introduced significant changes in the programme concept. During 2008 and 2009, Cinema City developed into an international film festival, which, through its scope, film programme and distinguished guests from around the world, represents an important cultural and film event for Serbia and the region. In 2010, the organization of the Cinema City festival was assumed by the Cinema City Association, which continues to nurture and develop the festival in terms of both concept and infrastructure.

Guests

Guests of the festival in 2008 and 2009 were Guillermo Arriaga, who won the award for best screenplay at Cannes in 2005, winner of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York – Lance Hammer, the first Serbian winner at Sarajevo Film Festival – Vladimir Perišić, as well as domestic and regional film icons such as Miki Manojlović, Goran Paskaljević, Emir Kusturica, Pjer Žalica, Despina Mauzaki... A special guest of the 2010 Festival was the famous American actress and singer – Juliette Lewis, who performed with her bend at Cinema City music opening on June 5, 2010. Over 80,000 people visited Cinema City, and clear skies, warm weather, and quality programme certainly contributed to a great number of visitors at open-air cinemas, which are one of the strongest points of the Cinema City festival. The audience was also greatly interested in the guest appearance of the Iraqi director, Mohamed Al-Daradji. Cinema City 2011 presented some of the most significant contemporary authors from the world of independent film. Guests of the Festival, in whose honor Cinema City organized screenings of a number of retrospectives, were the Hungarian director Béla Tarr, Lithuanian author Šarūnas Bartas, and Polish director Dorota Kędzierzawska. Cinema City played host to the Board of the European Film Academy and numerous directors, producers, screenwriters, actors, and film professionals such Nick Powell, Bruno Chatelin, Laurence Herszberg, Andreas Dresen, and many film stars from Serbia and the region. Domestic film authors also caused great interest, as well as young film artists, the future of domestic cinematography.

Jury

  1. The Jury National Class: Loïc Magneron, Raymond Phathanavirangoon, Peter Stumbur
  2. The Jury Up to 10,0000 Bucks: Sarita Matijević, Nikola Majdak Jr., Dean Radovanović
  3. The Jury Fresh Danube Films: David González
  4. The MTV Jury: Aleksandar Ilić, Boris Miljković
  5. The Jury FIPRESCI Serbia: Milan D. Špiček, Boris Gigov, Dejan Dabić
  1. The Jury National Class: Katrin Gebbe, Marek Rozenbaum, Chad Chenouga
  2. The Jury Up to 10,000 Bucks: Brankica Drašković, Vladimir Crnjanski, Uroš Tomić
  1. The Jury National Class: Laurence Herszberg, Davide Manuli, Mary Nazari,Lorena Pavlič, Martin Schweighofer
  2. The Jury Exit Point: Fridrik Thór Fridriksson,Simon Perry, Jean Roy, Mira Staleva, Will Tizard
  3. The Jury Hungry Days: Will Tizard, João Pedro Rodrigues, Zvonimir Jurić, Santiago Fillol
  4. The Jury Up to 10,000 Bucks: Rajko Petrović, Nevena Matović, Irena Škorić
  1. The Jury Exit Point: Dorota Kędzierzawska, Sergey Lavrentiev, Ana Maria Rossi, Igor Sterk, Visar Vishka
  2. The Jury National Class: Philippe Azoury, Sharunas Bartas, Jan Cvitkovič, Eva Hubert, Beki Probst
  3. The Jury Up to 10,000 bucks: Nikola Ljuca, Vladimir Paskaljevic, Damir Todorovic
  1. The Jury Exit Point: Canan Gerede, Guy Jacques, Ninos-Fenek Mikelidis, Steffen Wink, Kalina Kovacevic
  2. The Jury National Class: Dejan Acimovic, Thure Munkholm, Kirill Razlogov, Jelka Stergel, Albert Wiederspiel
  3. The Jury Up 10,000 bucks: Gauthier Morax, Ognjen Glavonic, Dunja Kusturica
  1. The Jury Exit Point: Tuncel Kurtiz, Martin Blaney, Ivan Fila, Labina Mitevska, Ellis Driessen
  2. The Jury National Class and Up to 10,000 bucks: Pjer Zalica, Ludovic Chavarot, Srdjan Koljevic, Iliana Kitanova, Padraic Delaney
  3. The Jury FIPRESCI Serbia: Sandra Perovic, Vladimir Crnjanski, Stasa Jamusakov
  1. The Jury Exit Point and National Class: Radan Popovic, Despina Mouzaki, Dom Rotheroe, Peter van Bueren, Thomas Poulard
  2. The Jury Up to 10,000 bucks Jury: Igor M. Toholj, Marija Perovic, Sasa Radojevic

    Awards

Festival’s award Ibis, was named after a bird, whose habitat is in the Danube area not far from the festival’s base. According to folklore, Ibis is the last creature in wild which looks for a cover from bad weather, but is also the first to reappear after it, thus revealing itself as the messenger of beautiful weather. It is made by Serbian sculptor Nikola Pešić.

2014