Radmila Djurica

The last day of Cinema City, film festival settled in Novi Sad, Vojvodina in Serbia went on with finale and awards of the Cinema City International Film Festival. Members of the Board of the prestigious film institution European Film Academy have been honorary guests of the Cinema City 2012 and this is the first official visit of the European Film Academy to Serbia.

At the meeting of the Board, held in Novi Sad, Saturday June 23, decided about domestic film artists to become member of the prestigious Academy, the new members of the EFA. EFA had ninety-nine members, but today total about two thousand six hundred film professionals under the common goal of promoting European film culture. EFA was founded in 1989 under the name European Cinema Society, the president of the initiative was the legend of film Ingmar Bergman. The goal of the Academy is to promote European film culture and protect the European film industry. EFA initiates and participates in a series of activities associated to film politics, economy, art and professional education. The apex of EFA’s activities is the annual European Film Awards ceremony. In 2012 Cinema City Festival renowned members of the Board and domestic film professionals had the opportunity to exchange their professional experience by supporting the development of modern trends in domestic and European film.

During the last eight days, the Festival presented 100 films in four competition and four review selections, most of those being Serbian premieres. Various locations of the Festival screened some of the most interesting achievements of independent film production. Pre-sold screenings, especially for competition selections National Class, Educons Hungry Days and Exit Point, and review selection MTV presents Burn Planet Rock and 3600 proved just how significant films are in modern culture. This year’s Cinema City the audience gave special attention to the main guest of the festival, German director Andreas Dresen. The success of this year’s Festival was in no small part owed to the educational platform Cinema Now Live Academy, dedicated to students and young professionals from the world of film, held a series of lectures and which gave them a unique opportunity to talk with world-renowned film professionals, such as Nik Powell, or Laurence Herszberg and others.