The Austrian Film Festival 2024 “Imagine: Film”, held from April 25th to 28th in Belgrade, Niš, and Novi Sad, was ceremonially opened last night at the Cultural Center Hall in Belgrade.
Addressing the audience at the opening were Ivan Aranđelović, the editor of the film program at the Cultural Center in Belgrade, Amadeus Faltajner, the director of the Austrian Cultural Forum, and Saša Radojević, the selector of this year’s festival edition. Amadeus Faltajner mentioned the festival title “Imagine: Film” and the general motto of Austrian foreign cultural policy “Imagine Dignity,” which focuses on ecological and social issues. This year, as part of the film festival’s accompanying program, an Industry Day was organized, focusing on expert exchanges on “Green Filming.”
Speaking about this year’s selection, Saša Radojević highlighted the films “Rimini” and “Sparta” by Ulrich Seidl, whom he described as one of the most interesting filmmakers at the moment. Regarding the film “Zero Calories,” which opened the festival and the entire program, the festival’s selector added: “Jessica Hausner’s film addresses what is very present in contemporary Europe – the constant need for maintaining vitality and a healthy life, which can easily transform into a kind of subtle dictatorship. The films you will see at the festival are very precise, and the precision with which they recognize and consider the problems of the contemporary world is something that elevates Austrian cinematography above the European average.”
