Fest opens on Friday

BELGRADE - Fest Executive Director Dragan Marinkovic has announced, ahead of Friday's opening of 42nd International Film Festival, an interesting program which will run until March 9.

"I can say a day before the opening, for which I hope that it will be interesting to all, that we are almost done with preparations. Of course, we have some problems here and there, but everything is under control and all movies have practically arrived in Belgrade," he told Tanjug.

At 7 p.m. on Friday, the festival will be declared open at Centre Sava by director Boban Skerlic, and the program begins with his movie "So Hot Was the Cannon" (Top je bio vreo).

"I think that is logical. We have long awaited the movie, and it is a nice thing that one Serbian author opens the festival. We are preparing a short, 10-minute program, I think that it is very effective in visual terms, and that the audience will love it," the executive director said.

Seventy-five films will be screened in several program units- 'Main Program' showcases festival winners, Oscar winners and nominees, and films by famous authors, 'Hollywood' features American mainstream cinema, 'Europe' shows films produced and co-produced in the EU, and 'World Film Panorama' presents works of cinematic art from far-off countries.

Films from Scandinavia and Russia will be 'In Focus' this year, and other Fest programs include 'Fest Presents' and 'Fest Party', with "Duran Duran: Unstaged", concert film directed by David Lynch.

The only competition program, 'Europe out of Europe', will show six films that do not fall into the European mainstream but are under great influence of Europe - coming from Azerbaijan, Russia, Georgia, Norway, Israel and Macedonia.

The...