At the upcoming, 49th edition of the International Film Festival - FEST, which will be held from May 7th to May 16th, one of the programme segments will be dedicated to cult films that marked previous editions of the Festival. Within the selection of ‘FEST's 50’, ten films will be shown in the big hall of the Sava Centre: ‘The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone’, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ by Stanley Kubrick, ‘The Tin Drum’ by Volker Schlöndorff, ‘Death in Venice’ by Luchino Visconti, ‘The Serpent's Egg’ by Ingmar Bergman, ‘Midnight Cowboy’ by John Schlesinger, ‘Andrei Rublev’ by Andrei Tarkovsky, ‘Tristana’ by Luis Buñuel, ‘Borsalino’ by Jacques Deray and ‘Betty Blue’ by Jean-Jacques Beineix.
Re-edited version of the film ‘The Godfather 3’ by the legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, made on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the first screening of this film, will be shown for the first time in Serbia at the closing ceremony of FEST, on May 16th. The last chapter of the Corleone family saga has been renamed: ‘The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone’, with which Coppola pays tribute to writer and screenwriter Mario Puzo, and includes a title that was originally intended for the third part of ‘The Godfather’. For the needs of the new version, Coppola made a new beginning and end of the film, and repackaged certain scenes, shots and music.
Stanley Kubrick's film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ was shown at the first edition of FEST in 1971. The film follows a voyage to Jupiter with the computer HAL 9000 after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith that affects human evolution. The film deals with the themes of existentialism, human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ was nominated for four Oscars, with Kubrick winning for his direction of the visual effects. In the following decades, the film gained cult status, and critics and filmmakers consider it one of the most influential films of all time.
John Schlesinger's ‘Midnight Cowboy’, starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman in cult roles, is another film screened at the first edition of FEST. The leading actress in the film, Sylvia Miles, was also the first guest to arrive in the history of this event. Schlesinger's film, whose plot revolves around the friendship of a naive gigolo in New York (Voight) and a petty swindler (Hoffman), won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
‘The Tin Drum’ by Volker Schlöndorff was screened at FEST in 1980, shortly after receiving the highest accolades in the world of film: the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Based on the novel by Günther Grass, the film follows the life of Oskar Matzerath, who decides that he will never grow up, in the years of the rise of Nazism and the Second World War. Director Volker Schlöndorff was a welcome guest at FEST in the 21st century, and he visited Belgrade in 2001 and 2008. In the programme of ‘FEST's 50’, the audience will be able to see the ‘Director's Cut’ version of the film extended by 20 minutes, according to the original vision of the author.
The film ‘Andrei Rublev’ by the famous Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky had its world premiere in 1966, and was shown for the first time at FEST in 1973. The film, based on the life of the eponymous Russian icon painter from the 15th century, was shown again at FEST in 2008, when a screening of the restored version was held. On that occasion, the guest of Belgrade and the Festival was the Russian cinematographer Vadim Yusov, who also worked on the original version of the film.
The film ‘Death in Venice’, directed by Luchino Visconti, was shown at FEST in 1973. This adaptation of the novella of the same name by Thomas Mann won a special award at the Cannes Film Festival two years earlier. ‘Tristana’ by the legendary Luis Buñuel, starring Catherine Deneuve (who visited FEST in 2005), was screened at the famous first edition of the Festival, as well as Jacques Deray's ’Borsalino’ with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon in the lead roles, as one of the most successful gangster films in the history of French cinema. The erotic psychological drama ‘Betty Blue’ by Jean-Jacques Beineix (1986) was one of the films that marked the eighties at FEST.
The biggest and most famous film event in Serbia and the region, the International Film Festival - FEST, will take place under the slogan ’Back to the Future’ with the intention to contribute to a sizable return of audiences to cinemas. It is organized by the Belgrade Festivals Centre (CEBEF), under the auspices of the City of Belgrade and with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Information. This year's FEST will be held in compliance with all measures of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the COVID-19 Infection Disease Crisis Response Team. The priority for the organizing team of the Festival is the health and safety of the audience, the guests and the Festival team.
Information about ticket sales for the 49th International Film Festival - FEST will be announced at a later date.
