Film Center Serbia and State of Exit, the company responsible for creating huge European music festival Exit, are organising the first Film Festival of Serbia, to be held July 3-8 in Novi Sad.

The organisers wanted to promote national cinema. In former Yugoslavia, the national competition festival was Pula, which is now the Croatian national festival. Until Montenegro separated from Serbia in May 2005, the Herceg Novi Film Festival was the national one for the former union.

The festival's National Class section will present all 18 Serbian films made in the last year. Out of the 18, two will be out of competition: the opening film Promise Me This by Emir Kusturica and the closing film Optimists by Goran Paskaljevic.

Nine of the films will have their premieres at the festival.

Awards will be given in 14 official categories.

Icelandic director and member of the EFA, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson will preside over the main jury which will also include Lebanese producer Rita Dahger (Fahrenheit 9/11, Terror's Advocate), Croatian film critic Nenad Polimac, Serbian director Boro Draskovic and Serbian actress Dusica Zegarac.

The Eurimages programme will also be competitive, with 17 films. The jury will consist of Serbian director Gorcin Stojanovic, Austrian director Otto Reiter and Jasmin Durakovic, head of Bosnian Federal Television. Eurimages frequently organizes week-long showcases of their movies in the member-countries, but the competition selection at the Film Festival of Serbia is the first of its kind in Europe.

In addition to official competition programmes, there will be several sidebars, including Perusal of Serbian Film which will focus on older Serbian films, starting with the first in the history of Serbian cinema - Cica Ilija Stanojevic's Karadjordje from 1911.

Programmes will be dedicated to the work of Kusturica, Fridriksson, Draskovic and Zegarac.

The Life Achievement Award will be given to lauded Serbian director Dusan Makavejev.

The Film Festival of Serbia will also establish a fund, the Danubius Film Fund, to support of film industries of countries which are positioned on the stream of the river Danube (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldavia and Ukraine). On July 7-8 the festival will host initial meetings with film experts from the countries.

COMPETITION TITLES

NATIONAL CLASS

A3- Rock'n'roll Strikes Back (A3- Rokenrol Uzvraca Udarac) by Petar Pasic

Agi And Ema (Agi I Ema) by Milutin Petrovic

Belle Epoque by Nikola Stojanovic

Film Noir by Jud Jones and Risto Topalovski

Gucha! by Dusan Milic

Black Horses (Konji Vrani) by Ljubisa Samardzic

Change Me (Promeni Me) by Milan Karadzic

Hamlet by Aleksandar Rajkovic

How To Become A Hero (Kako Postati Heroj) by Mladen Maticevic

Huddersfielf by Ivan Zivkovic

Kenedi Is Getting Married (Kenedi Se Zeni) by Zelimir Zilnik

Made In Yu by Mirko Lazic

Sand Glass (Pescanik) by Szabolc Tolnai

S.O.S.- Save Our Souls by Slobodan Sijan

The Reject (Odbacen) by Misa Radivojevic

The Trap (Klopka) by Srdan Golubovic

EURIMAGES COMPETITION

Family Hero by Thierry Klifa (France/Italy)

French For Beginners by Christian Ditter (Germany/France)

From The Sea by Nani Garcia, Miguelanxo Prado (Spain/Portugal)

Iberia by Carlos Saura (France/Spain)

Klimt by Raoul Ruiz (Austria/France/Germany/UK)

Contact by Sergej Stanojkovski (Germany/Macedonia)

Light My Fire by Anton Reixa (Spain/Argentina/Denmark/Portugal)

Lunacy by Jan Svankmajer (Czech Republic/Slovakia)

Taxidermia by Zsofia Ruttkay, Gyorgy Palfi (Hungary/Austria/France)

The Archbishop's Visit by Zoltan Kamondi (Hungary/Romania)

The Beheaded Rooster by Radu Gabrea (Austria/Germany/Hungary)

The Front Line by David Gleeson (UK/Germany/Sweden/Ireland)

The Road Home by Selman Alanyurek (Turkey/Hungary)

Trance by Teresa Villaverde (Portugal/France)

True North by Steve Hudson (Ireland/Germany/UK)

Waiter by Alex van Warmerdam (Holland/Belgium)

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