Summary:

Welcome to the 51th edition of Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival. For the first time this year, the oldest Belgrade's film festival has two competitions: national and international. The members of the Jury for the International Competition Program are Tue Steen Muller, Dominique Auvray and Jadwiga Glowa, and the members of Jury for the Domestic Competition Program are Maja Volk, Predrag Pedja Babović and Miroslav Momčilović.

One of the first guests of the Festival is Mr. Bill Plympton, the acclaimed author of numerous animated films. Tonight, after the opening ceremoby and the first block of films from the Domestic Competition Program, the Festival will present eight animated films of Bill Plympton: "Your face", "25 ways to quit smoking", "How to kiss", "The Wiseman", "Push comes to shove", "Nosehair", "How to make love to a woman" and "Guard dog" . Bill Plympton has already held a press conference and a meeting with the students of Belgrade art schools. His host during this meeting that took place yesterday was Rastko Ćirić.

The Domestic Competition Program is composed of 56 films, while the International Competition is composed of 59. Both juries will selecet the winner of the major festival award. This years the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Stevan Radović, one of the most recognisible cameramen in Serbian documentary and short-subject films.

Besides the animated movies of Bill Plympton, the special programmes of this year include The Retrospective of Nicholas Philibert, Greek Panorama, Indian Film and New Brazilian Documentary Film.

At today's press conference, the first of the festival, jurnalists will have an opportunity to hear a word and pose questions to the people who have made this year's Festival possible, and they will see the first guests who have arrived in Belgrade.

Summary:

Bill Plympton, the acclaimed author of short animated films, opened the 51th Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival yesterday evening.

"It's a great honour for me to be here with such a famous crowd on the stage. I'm here for three days, and every night we go out, and have wonderful food and great music. I think everybody here in Belgrade is a musician. I'm very proud because 'Guard Dog' has its Europian premiere here in Belgrade at the 51th Festival", said Mr Plympton before he announced the Festival officially opened.

The first press conference and screenings also started yesterday. During the press conference, the Festival Director Miloš Paramentić said that from the total fund of the Fest, 250.000 dinars went to Hilandar and 500.000 dinars to this year's Belgrade's Documentary and Short Film Festival. Also, this year's winner of the Lifetime Achievement award, Mr. Steva Radović, gave a part of his prize money to Hilandar and to the people who lost their homes in Kosovo and Metohija.

Paramentić hopes that the Festival will be able to send money to Kosovo as well.

The Editor of Catalogue appoligized yesterday to Ms Soudabeh Babagap, the female Author from Iran, for a mistake that had been made in the Catalogue.

Summary:

During yesterday's press conference, the conference host Boćidar Zećević introduced the memberes of the Jury for the International Competition Program –Tue Steen Muller from Danmark, Dominique Auvray from France and Jadwiga Glowa from Poland.
Yesterday, the Festival's guest, Terje Rangnes, from Norway, explained that he had made his satirical film “Save the Children” as a retort to the political culture and customs of his country. John Cahill, from New York, made his directorial debut with the documentary film “Long Gone” - a story about the vagabonds of the USA.
“I'm a Yugoslav and no one has the right to terminate my state and my statehood, without an appropriate referendum,” says Blasko Garbić, from Subotica, in Miroslav Nikolić's film “My Yugoslavia.” Garbić appeared at yesterday's press conference with the author of the film, and he spoke about the creation of a new, more humanious Yugoslav state.
Slobodan Popović said that his film, “The Bald Eagle – A Man's Friend,” had been made in four days.
The public had a chance to see the short-subject film “The Wishing Well” (made by Vladimir Paskaljević) that talks about a group of psychiatrists and their work with homeless children and the short animated film“All Together on the Wireless Machine” (made by Rastko Ćirić). The latter was used as the initial sequence in Dinko Tucaković's film about the Beatles.
This year, the Montenegrin filmmaker Andro Martinović has two films in the Domestic Competition Program. The first to be screened is his short animated film “Belonina's game.”
Yesterday, a young student of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Belgrade, Marko Radosavljević, has made his directorial debut with “The Most Beautiful Remnant of the Distant Past” - a story about the Old Belgrade.

Summary:

Yesterday's press conference began with the presentation of Rada Šešić's new film "In the Whitest Solitude". Šešić came from Amsterdam, where she works as a selector for the Rotterdam Film Festival and a leacturer of South-East-Asian Cinema for the University of Amsterdam. For this festival, Šešić has selected the films of a special program called "Far from Bollywood." That program includes Indian short films, animated films and documentaries, including independent documentaries. The second guest from abroad was Mr Antonis Papadopulos, the Art Director of the International Short Film Festival in Drama, Greece. He talked about his Festival, the Special Program of "Greek Panorama," and the problem of making a selection of Serbian films, which he ascribed to the fact that a lot of them had been made in video formats.

The guest from Iran, Mr Mohamad Khalil Zadeh, is the author of a documentary called "Candle and Wind". The film talks about a man who can only run backwards. During his stay in Belgrade, Khalil Zadeh plans to make a documentary about the city. Serbian filmmakers Radiša Stanišić, Milan Lolić, Srdjan Šarenac and Dejan Strika also talked at the press conference.
After the conference, journalists and filmmakers went to a coctail party held at Belgrade's Town Hall.

Summary:

Yesterday, Bočidar Zečević, the press conference hoast, appologised to journalists and filmmakers for several mistakes made in the running of this year's festival. The last press conference will be held tommorow, in Hall No. 4, which was specially refurbished for this occassion.
“Love” is a story about a poet who talks about life, death and love. The author of the film, Vladimir Borisavljević, succeed in confusing the audians for they did not know until the very end of the film that its main protagonist was actually blind. Dejan Dabić, the co-author of the short animated film “The Leader,” announced that SCF'98 Production is in the process of making the first Serbian animated feature film called “Konstantin Veliki. ”
Dragomir Zupanc made the documentary “Želimir Žilnik: the Contributions to the Yugoslav Cinematographic History and Political Pornography” which talks about the life and work of a well known Yugoslav director, Želimir Žilnik, and his ideological and political persecutions in the 1960s. During the press conference, two female authors from Novi Sad, Svetlana Paročki i Danica Aćimović, presented their last films.
The Festival presented this year's winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Mr Stevo Radović, with a special publication on his life and work.