The ninth International Comics Festival opened at the Student Cultural Centre (SKC) of Belgrade late Thursday, and it will last until October 2.

A special guest of the festival organized by SKC's Happy Gallery is British publicist and exhibitions curator Paul Gravett. The award giving ceremony started with paying respect to recently deceased Sergio Bonelli, who was the creator of popular Italian comics, after which Bojan Djukic, one of the organizers sang a song from the musical Les Miserables based on the Victor Hugo's novel of the same name.

The winner of the award for the contribution to Serbian comics strip is Novica Kruljevic, who was presented with the award at the beginning of the ceremony. The emcee of the program and organizer of the festival Miki Pjescic said that 275 participants from 32 countries submitted their works to the contest.

The Grand Prix award went to Marko Stojanovic and Jovan Ukropina from Serbia. Jury handed out awards for the best traditional and alternative style comic, script, graphics, as well as a special award for inventiveness. Jury awards for the youngest contestants were presented to Janja Limic and Sara Trkulja, both six years old.

Winner of the award for the best publication of the foreign material in Serbia 2010/2011 is Darkwood Publishing, Belgrade, for series 'Conan: The Savage Sword of Cimmeria, Book 1,' whereas the winner of the award for the best publisher of domestically originated comics 2010/1011 is Komiko Publishing from Novi Sad.