This year, the twenty-ninth edition of the Palić European Film Festival is being held in the traditional festival term, from July 16 to 22 in Palić and Subotica, organized by the Open University Subotica. This year, the festival is being held at several locations, including the unique Summer Stage in Palić, as well as the Eurocinema, Abazija and Lifka cinemas.
Laureates of this year’s “Alexander Lifka” awards for outstanding contribution to European cinema – writer, screenwriter and director Dušan Kovačević, in the category of domestic creators, and director Michel Hazanavicius in the category of foreign creators – were announced at the press conference concerning the Festival. This year, for the second time, the Regional Lifka is awarded, and the laureate is actor Igor Galo. The program of two competition sections was also presented to the media – Official Selection and Parallels and Encounters.
Dušan Kovačević is Serbian writer, screenwriter and director born in 1948 in Mrđenovac near Šabac. He graduated in dramaturgy at the Academy of Theater, Film, Radio and Television. He has written and directed over 20 theater plays translated into 27 languages and performed around the world. More than 3,000 times his plays were performed in Belgrade theaters alone, watched by over 1.9 million spectators. Dušan Kovačević also wrote 11 screenplays for multi-award-winning feature films such as “Underground” by Emir Kusturica, “Special Treatment” by Goran Paskaljević, “Who is Singing Over There” by Slobodan Šijan, “Balkan Spy” (in his own direction), “The Meeting Point” by Goran Marković, and others. Film “It’s Not So Bad to Be Human”, which he wrote and directed, was shown with great success in Serbian cinemas and abroad during 2021 and 2022. Since 1973, he has been a member of Serbian Writers’ Association, and since 1998 he has been the director of Zvezdara Theater in Belgrade. He is a regular member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Michel Hazanavicius was born and raised in Paris. His grandparents were originally from Lithuania, but moved to France in the 1920s. Hazanavicius attended art school and continued to work as a director of commercials and television projects. In 1999, he wrote and directed his first feature film, “Mes Amis” (1999), starring his brother Serge Hazanavicius. His next feature film, a spy parody, “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies” (2006), was a box office success at the box office and guaranteed a sequel, “OSS 117: Lost in Rio” (2009), which was also a hit. Hazanavicius attracted the attention of the international audience by releasing “The Artist” (2011), starring his wife Berenice Bejo and the star of the “OSS 117” films, Jean Dujardin. The film was a big hit and garnered many major nominations and awards, including an Oscar, a BAFTA Award and a Caesar Award for Best Director.
Igor Galo was born on December 5, 1948 in Ćuprija. His first role was in the film “I Have Two Mothers and Two Fathers”, directed by Krešo Golik in 1968. After that, he achieved a number of notable roles in movies, and is probably best known, at least in the People’s Republic of China, for the role of Bambin in the film “Bridge” by Hajrudin Shiba Krvavac. He acted in some of the most famous Yugoslav films – “Walter Defends Sarajevo” by Hajrudin Šiba Krvavac, “Wild Angels” (1969) by Fadil Hadžić, with Neda Arnerić, “Masquerade” (1971) by Boštjan Hladnik – a publicly banned film in SFRY, “Afternoon of a pheasant”(1972) by Marijan Arhanić, and many others. He received the “Marjan Rotar” award of the Pula Film Festival for his contribution to Croatian film and the “Fabijan Šovagović” award for his life’s work, awarded by the Croatian Directors’ Association in 2018.
The Official Selection of this year’s European Film Festival Palić consists of 12 European achievements. The program includes films: “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush” directed by Andreas Dresen, “As Far As I Can Walk” by Stefan Arsenijević, “No” by Dietrich Bruggemann, “Gentl” by Laszlo Csuia and Anna Nemes, “Rimini” by Ulrich Seidl, “The Beautiful Years” by Lorenzo Amico de Carvalho, “Sick of Myself” by Kristoffer Borgli, “Girl Picture” by Alli Haapasalo, “R.M.N.” by Cristian Mungiu, “Close” by Lucas Dhont, “Smoking Causes Coughing” by Quentin Dupieux, and “Final Cut” by Michel Hazanavicius.
The programmer of the main competition program is Nikolaj Nikitin, the main lecturer at SOFA (School of Film Advancement). At the European Film Festival Palić was the artistic director from 2005 to 2017, and he is also the curator of the Critics’ Week at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. For the last two and a half decades, he has been working as a film curator and critic at numerous film festivals across Europe, the Goethe Institut and the French Institute.
The jury of this year’s Official Selection programme consists of producers Michael James McMahon and Katriel Schory, actress Katarina Radivojević, producer, selector and curator Lorna Tee, and Cottbus Festival selector Joshua Jadi.
The competition programme “Parallels and Encounters” presents the films “Silent Land” by Agnieszka Woszczynska, “Fools” by Tomasz Wasilewski, “Borders of Love” by Tomasz Wiński, “Butterfly Vision” by Maksim Nakonechnyi, “A Feature Film about Life” by Dovilė Šarutyt, “Anatolian Leopard ” by Emre Kayis, “Cinema Sabaya” by Orit Fouks Rotem, “Wet Sand ” by Elene Naveriani, “Erasing Frank” by Gabor Fabricius and “Uncle” by David Kapac and Andrija Mardešić.
The programmer of the “Parallels and Encounters” section is Julia Sinkevych, film producer, selector, consultant, co-founder and member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Film Academy, member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Institute, member of the European Film Academy. For the last 10 years, Julia has worked as the general producer of the Odessa International Film Festival.
The jury of the “Parallels and Encounters” programmm consists of film critics Natalia Serebriakova from Ukraine, Wolfgang Martin Hamdorf from Germany, and Martin Milinković from Croatia.
The FIPRESCI jury – jury of the International Federation of Film Critics, at the 29th Palić European Film Festival, consists of Michele Sancisi, Sunčica Unevska and Ingrid Beerbaum.
During the pre-festival program and the central part of the event, the audience will be presented with more than 130 films from all over Europe, in 15 different selections and program units. Most of the films will have their Serbian and regional premiere here at Palić. In addition to the rich film programme, the audience will be able to enjoy a number of dynamic accompanying contents – concerts, exhibitions, promotions, workshops and master classes.
The European Film Festival Palić was supported by the Serbian Ministry of Culture, the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities, the City of Subotica, the European Union through the Creative Europe MEDIA program, as well as numerous partners and medias.
The sponsor – a friend of the European Film Festival Palić for more than 20 years is Gorki list, as an unavoidable part of our artistic scenography, but also a partner that encourages the engagement of the audience to explore the experiences of presented films through the Gorki List Audience Award. This year, the traditional cooperation will be extended to the music part of the festival program.
Source: palicfilmfestival.com
