The 57th Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival started at the Belgrade Cultural Centre yesterday evening. The Festival opened with a ceremony at which a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Serbian animator Borislav Sajtinac.

Opening the Festival, Minister of Culture Nebojsa Bradic said that the Festival, which has a history of being an event for the most courageous and progressive young directors from Serbia to come forward, not only paved the way for acknowledged directors of today but also inspired new approaches to filmmaking.

Known and respected all over the world, the Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival is committed to an important mission, to define new paths and establish guidelines in these film genres, he said.

Three films were shown at the opening which in different ways present the spirit of Serbia’s capital city – “Und das ist Belgrad” (“And This is Belgrade”) by Corina Schwingruber, “Belgrade” by Arjan Brentjes and “U redu, Pobedio Sam” (“It’s Ok, I win”) by Vladimir Petrovic.

200 films will be shown at the Festival up to 3 April.

The Festival jury consists of Kamran Sherdil (Iran), Pip Chodorov (France) Olga Markova (Bulgaria), Bojana Andric (Serbia) and Mladen Djordjevic (Serbia).