Cultural Centre of Belgrade Movie Theatre Festival from 19th to 22nd October 2023
The Cultural Centre of Belgrade Movie Theatre (DKC) is one of the oldest active cinemas in Belgrade. It was opened on 19 October 1963 with productions of an animated film „Solista” by Nikola Majdak, „Drugovi” and the featured movie „Radopolje‟ by Stol Janković, one of the Pula Festival awardees. In the press of that time, it was instantly recognized as „a specialized movie theatre dedicated above all to short and documentary movies” (Borba and Politika daily newspapers). In the coming six decades DKC became a meeting place for the audience (looking at you, who look for something more than Holywood film ready-wear in a film, who have a curious spirit and a desire for different movies that do not offer easy solutions), for the big and small cinematographies (DKC is home to almost all key festivals on our cultural scene, and some of them, like the Festival of Auteur Film and Free Zone festival, started from here), directors and acting greatness.
The grand jubilee – 60 years of existence of the Cultural Centre of Belgrade Movie Theatre will be marked with the setting of a new festival, awarding honorary seats to the chosen film authors, an archive of personal stories from the cinema, film marathon, exhibition in the Film gallery and a new visual identity, and all under the slogans ”It is Better in the Cinema” and ”Seats are not Marked with Numbers, but Some are Reserved”!
The honorary movie theatre seats will be awarded to distinguished authors who marked Serbian and Yugoslav cinematography of the past decade: Đorđe Kadijević, Zdravko Šotra, Boro Drašković, Miloš Radivojević, Želimir Žilnik, Lordan Zafranović, Srđan Karanović, Goran Marković, Slobodan Šijan, Rajko Grlić, Emir Kusturica and Darko Bajić. A special seat will also be dedicated to Vesna Danilović, the long-time editor of the program. That is to say: it’s better in the cinema, seats are not marked with numbers but, beginning with this year, some will be reserved for the directors that left their mark in this cinema.
If a filmmaker has been in the business long enough, they likely have at least one favourite project they worked on for years but never filmed. Inspired by a section from Rajko Grlić’s book “Untold Stories,” Stefan Arsenijević, a director, and the former DKC film editor, and one of the main authors of the anniversary programmer’s concept, is launching, in collaboration with the Cultural Center of Belgrade, a festival that we believe does not exist anywhere in the world: the first International Festival of Film Never Made. It will be opened by director Rajko Grlić on 19 October, followed by Goran Marković (20 October) and Srđan Karanović (21 October), who will speak about the movies they have been working on for years, but which never come around to see the dusk of the cinema projections. The films will be experienced also through live readings of the original scripts. Every evening will be closed with projections of the most recent movie by each director, and the entrance is free on all three days, to every section of the programme.
On Sunday, 22 October, the anniversary program will conclude with a film marathon called “Non–Stop Cinema”, paying homage to the program created by the first DKC film editor, Marija Marinčić Majdak. From 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., current European films will be screened at a popular price of 200 RSD. As an exclusive treat, before the screenings starting at 3/5/7/9 and 11 p.m., newsreels from October and November 1963 will be shown, courtesy of Filmske Novosti.
The Film Gallery will welcome you with a chronology of the most important dates in the history of the Cultural Center Hall. It’s better in the cinema! Welcome to the iconic cinema of good films!
It’s better in the cinema! Welcome to the iconic cinema of good films!