FEST (film festival)

FEST
LocationBelgrade, Serbia
Founded1971; 53 years ago (1971)
LanguageInternational
Websitewww.fest.rs

FEST is an annual film festival held in Belgrade, Serbia since 1971.[1][2] The festival is usually held in the first quarter of the year.

It was the only film festival in socialist countries that attracted big Hollywood stars such as Jack Nicholson, Kirk Douglas, Robert De Niro, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and famous directors like Miloš Forman, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, Sam Peckinpah, Pier Paolo Pasolini etc.

The festival's significance declined in the 1990s, mostly due to the international embargo FR Yugoslavia was under at the time. In 1993 and 1994, it was not even held, and in 1997, it was interrupted in protest against police brutality taking place against student protesters.

However, FEST still attracts numerous movie buffs. In 2007, 98,191 tickets were sold for around 80 films.[3]

In 2007, it was opened by actress Catherine Deneuve and in 2009 by actor Ralph Fiennes.

  1. ^ Richard Taylor, Nancy Wood, Julian Graffy, Dina Iordanova (2019). The BFI Companion to Eastern European and Russian Cinema. Bloomsbury. pp. 1942–1943. ISBN 978-1838718497.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ "Belgrade Film Festival – FEST" Archived 2013-03-06 at the Wayback Machine, International Radio of Serbia, (VoiceOfSerbia.org in English) (glassrbije.org in Serbian), February 22, 2013.
  3. ^ Beogradski međunarodni filmski festival — FEST 2007 Archived 2018-06-27 at the Wayback Machine.