City Secretary for Culture Nataša Mihailović Vacić hosted the famous director Lordan Zafranović and producer Dobrivoje Tanasijević - Dan Tana in the Old Palace (Stari dvor) today. Zafranović and Tanasijević are this year's winners of the prestigious Belgrade Victor Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film Art at the 51st FEST, which officially begins tonight.
On that occasion, Nataša Mihailović Vacić expressed her great satisfaction that these two film artists were the winners of the award and stated that their work had made a huge contribution to world cinema and its development, which was the reason why FEST was honouring them this year.
Zafranović and Tanasijević will be presented with the Belgrade Victor Award at the official opening of FEST tonight.
Lordan Zafranović is one of the most important directors from this region, who recently celebrated 60 years of his career. He is the director of classic feature films and documentaries, such as ‘Occupation in 26 Pictures’ (Okupacija u 26 slika), ‘The Fall of Italy’ (Pad Italije), ‘Evening Bells’ (Večernja zvona), ‘The Decline of the Century: Testament L.Z.’ (Testament), and the shooting of his new film ‘Golden Cut 42 (Children of Kozara)’ (Zlatni rez 42 - djeca Kozare) is underway. He is the winner of many prestigious awards.
The film producer Dobrivoje Tanasijević - Dan Tana is known for his work on films such as ‘Backbone’ (Kičma) by Vlatko Gilić, ‘Special Treatment’ (Poseban tretman) by Goran Paskaljević, which won numerous awards, including Best Supporting Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, given to Milena Dravić, and ‘Twilight Time’ (Suton), also directed by Goran Paskaljević, starring the only Serbian Oscar winner Karl Malden. Dan Tana made an outstanding contribution to the creation of the legacy dedicated to Karl Malden at the Yugoslav Film Archive.
The Belgrade Victor Award was established in 2014 at the suggestion of Jugoslav Pantelić, artistic director of FEST. This prestigious award was first presented to Milena Dravić and director Aleksandar Sokurov in 2015 and was thereafter also given to Velimir Bata Živojinović, Victoria Abril, Richard Dreyfuss, Miki Manojlović, John McTiernan, Neda Arnerić, Ištvan Sabo, Emir Kusturica , Karen Shakhnazarov, Rade Šerbedžija, Puriša Đorđević, Mira Banjac, Dušan Makavejev and others.
FEST will take place from 24 February to 5 March.
