NIKOLA JOETZE, programme VIP Europe The door ajar

It is our great pleasure to see at the Festival the films awarded by the European Film Academy (PRIX UIP) as the best ones in the past year, altogether at 12 film festivals.

- It is our pleasure to have that opportunity and we hope that this cooperation will become a practice in the years to come.

How was this contact made?

- Stefan Arsenijevic proposed to my colleague Bettina Schwartz, who organizes PRI UIP, and she concluded with our Editor Marjan During, that it would be good to include the films awarded by the Academy into the programme of 52 nd Belgrade festival of documentary and short film.

As far as i understood, the films made in any genre can compete for this award?

- Yes, as there are different ways and methods of talking about life. That can be done in a way it is done in the animation films or a surrealistic or a short feature film. There are so many ways to talk about life that the form should not be of relevance. It is important what the authors want to say about life, about the country they come from.

How does all that function and how do the authors from these parts can find themselves on that prestigious list of the awarded ones?

- The films are selected by an independent commission at 12 international film festivals, different both by orientation and by the type of films that they show; I have got with me a list, but I will mention just some. Valladolid , Berlin , Venice ... I can't mention all 12 of them. They all have in their programme a selection of “short” films. Out of these films, the commission that I have mentioned, chooses PRI UIP. That is the award that is supported by UIP (United International

Pictures), and thus the chosen film automatically becomes nominated for the award of the European Film Academy, and this year the final manifestation will be held in Berlin on 3 December. Every year we choose 12 films that in addition to the nomination for the award, will travel around the world. Thus my message could be:" Send your films to the festivals!”

As you probably know, Stefan Arsenijevic comes from Belgrade , but his film (A)TORZIJA that was the winner in Berlin , and has also received the Award of the European Film Academy as the best short film, is in fact, a Slovenian film. It is not easy to make films here.

- I know that the film and the tradition in general are very rich as well as that in different ways you manage to show and point out through films what problems you have and how you cope with the life and the history. I know that there is always the problem of lacking funds, and that is why we have decided that the author together with the nomination for this award, receives 2000 EUR, and providing that the film is titled the best one, he can receive the main award which is not less than10.000 EUR. Some of the films from these parts I had a chance to see at other festivals. For me it is always difficult to choose a film on the grounds of where it comes from. Each author has an independent and only his own language and approach. Yet, the country that film comes from gives it a specific note. There are several films from France in this programme, and it would be very difficult to say which of them is more or less “French” … In each of these films you see what the cultural heritage is like, but on the other hand these are only the individual manuscripts of the filmmakers. Each of them sees the circumstances in which he or she lives and the life in general, in a different way.

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