Author Film Festival FAF 2011 opened Israeli film director Eran Kolirin whose film Replacement hits the direct competition program of festival this year and is known as the award-winning author of film couple years back The Band's Visit. Author Film Festival FAF in Belgrade, Serbia, 30-5th of December began with the film Shame directed the British director and visual artist Steve McQueen. McQueen’s film Shame awarded at the beginning of autumn with Venice FIPRESCI award with the award for Best Actor Michael Fassbender features provocative story and uncovers the emotional story of alienation in the western world. The film talks about a man in 30s in New York obsessed with sex and unable to love any woman including his own sister. The film projection of Shame at the 17th FAF-in prior to entering the world of film in theaters followed the projections of cinema on one of the five movie festival sites:  Kinoteka - the Museum of Yugoslav Film Archives, Dom Omladine Cultural Centre and Kolosej – the City Multiplex Cinema.

By 5th of December Author Film Festival FAF 2011 features main program another 17 films, plus nine related events, including socially engaged films with LGBT themes, American Independent Production, a tribute to Zivko Nikolic Serbian film director, a promotion of Elma Tataragic’s book The Style of a Film Screenplay (Stil filmskog scenaria), music software and B2B business segment practiced previously on Belgrade’s International Film Festival FEST. A regional film professionals B2B meetings organized by the European Cultural Forum that will gather the professionals from the region - producers, distributors, representatives of the film centers, television stations and filmmakers. The topic is the development, financing, implementation, marketing and promotion of low-budget films. Budget of FAF the Author Film Festival of 2011 is very small, about 36,500 euros plus the Ministry of Culture with which the festival last year signed a protocol as a manifestation of a great cultural importance support with EUR 25,000. The City of Belgrade this year has reduced the financial support of 40 percent.

FAF in its 17th release, despite of a modest budget shows a total and a little bit more than 60 films there including big feature Berlin's laureate, Venice, Cannes and Sundance and is once again a unique opportunity for audiences to meet with renowned and with new film authors because these films will generally not be found later in city cinemas. The main program of 17th FAF offers the winner of this year's Berlinale film - Iran's Divorce: Nader and Simin by Asgari Farhadi who except for the Golden Bear, won the award for Best Acting Performance and won an award at Cannes Ecumenical Jury. The audience by now saw Faust, a surrealistic German gothic version of Faust directed by great Alexander Sokurov, who won the Golden Lion in Venice this year. Also Once Upon a Time in Anatolia by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Grand Prix winner at Cannes and the Golden Camera of Cannes award for Best Debut Film, Las Acacias directed by Argentine director Pablo Giorgelli .The main program includes the film Tyrannosaurus by British author Paddy Considina winning best director at Sundance Festival as well as 3D realization of the cult German director Wim Wenders'  Pina 3D, a film dedicated to the legendary dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch.

The prizes will be awarded tonight by the jury chaired with Michael Rowe winner of Grand Prix "Aleksandar Sasa Petrovic" last year’s 16th FAF and film director originally from Australia who directed last years’ erotic drama Leap Year, with other members of the Jury: the Macedonian director Vladimir Blaževski who has returned to the scene after 16 years with his provocative (Macedonian feature film showed on festival) film Punk’s Not Dead and the German film critic Gabriel Brunenmayer.

Author Film Festival FAF this year offers a varied accompanying program and five of them will be held at the BFP - "LGBT", "Engaged accounts", which addresses the issue of Wall Street and the global economic crisis and "Zoom", "The Wind from the north "and" India pop ". Also, program "Off Hollywood", shown at the cinema "Koloseum", a few notable achievements of the new American independent production backed up by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Films from this program are from the new directors, running the U.S. of everyday life that are not yet seen as Hollywood blockbusters, but are also fresh style featuring important issues.

 

The Cinematheque Section features "Tempting the movie" - a tribute to a Serbian director Živko Nikolić one of the most original authors in a region but also underestimated in the Old Yugoslav Film, Serbian and Montenegro Cinematography, which nowadays enriches the price of his work in a time being.

Cinematheque Section present the program "Hypnosis as a metaphor", which is implemented in cooperation with the 52nd October Salon and the program "The authors present" in which  Marko Babac, Želimir Gvardiol, Oleg Novković, Želimir Žilnik and Puriša Djordjevic present their selected films.  Serbian Film on FAF 2011

Among the attractions 17th FAF is a Serbian film that features opera Narcissus and Echo (Narcis i Eho) written and directed by Saša Radojević: film about life events of students and young people on shooting opera film based by actual opera story about old Greek myth that talks of obsession of a young man who is in love with his own reflection in the lake. Film features "self-involve" and "self-infatuation," characters who are unable to control vanity and achieve real intimacy. Festival also presented first 3D feature film that talks about love Practical Guide to Belgrade With Singing and Crying (Praktičan vodič kroz Beograd sa pevanjem i plakanjem) by Bojan Vuletic: romantic comedy shot in 3D technology camera that features names such as Baki Davrak, Jean Marc Barr, Julie Gayet (also the guest of festival) etc. And yet another Serbian film The Box (Kutija) directed by young female director Andrijana Stojkovic, a skillfully debut feature film about 90s in Belgrade and group of packers in charge to pack up Diplomacy Court still remain in old Yugoslavia.          Appeal to Freedom
FAF also joins appeals for freedom Jafar Panahi Iranian filmmaker, who won the Golden Lion in Venice for Circle, the Golden Camera at Cannes for The White Balloon and the Silver Bear in Berlin for Off side. On the occasion of a six-year prison sentence to which he was convicted in Tehran, with a 20-year ban on filmmaking, leaving Iran and perform in public, the FAF has invited the audience to support online video petition by a group of young producers from Serbia launched earlier this year. Due to a fact that I am one of the FIPRESCI Jury members on Author Film Festival FAF 2011, I cannot reveal the winner films just yet. But there more to come about the films and the winners of Author Film Festival FAF 2011 in Belgrade, Serbia tomorrow, after the closing ceremony tonight.

Woman In The Box

Film The Box is a book adaptation of Serbian literary work, which is one, one way or another, big adventure and a debut full-length feature film directed by young Andrijana Stojkovic, based on Slavoljub Stankovic novel, originally set as a film script and is a youth story of three different types; youthful temperaments, aspirations and destiny of people born in 70s on the territory of Serbia, during the 90s, at the time of the beginning of civil war in ex Yugoslavia. The scenario of this urban Belgrade film has already won several prestigious European awards (Hubert Balls, Cottbus) including one Serbian award at this year's Festival of Film Scenarios in Vrnjacka Banja Serbia.

There are two reasons why I have chosen this film that may not be the best  Serbian film in 2011 Serbia film production; first reason is simple, I belong to that generation and to that fate, which includes impossibility of migration from Serbia, at the beginning of the war on the territory of ex Yougoslavia. The other reason is that the director of film Andijan Stojkovic is a woman, which is still due to vague reasons, a great rarity in the Serbian film industry, dominated by male film directors. The realization of the film preceded by thorough preparation - the team has gone through severe pain and trouble of production difficulties at the beginning and end of their creative way.

Film is a simple, not pretentious, deliberately (non)ambitious, but above all brave enough for artistic achievement. It is a brave combination of fake documentary feature film that talks about a generation of young people from Serbia, which has not been able to progress or to emigrate because of war on the territory of former Yougoslavia. The author of The Box here presents film collage of quasi-documentary combination (the so-called mock-doc) confessions of the Diplomatic Court who have served in Belgrade shortly before sanction of early nineties and classical narrative film, which follow the adventures of three young Serbs packers with all their dreams and ambitions who packed Diplomatic Court who fled the war from Beograd. The feature part of film is very chamber and easily monitored via classic dialogical exchange of film language. This film also has a musical background that is very important because it highlights the topic; and emotions due to a fall of youthful dreams and a big disappointment in politics and country that we once believed in.