On June 6, the Yugoslav Cinematheque (Serbian Film Archives) celebrated its day. On June 6, 1896, the „Zlatni krst“ (At the Golden Cross) cafe in downtown Belgrade, was the venue of the first film screening in the entire Balkans, which took place only six months after the world’s first public film screening (Paris, 28 December 1895). The Belgrade audience saw the usual Lumiere Brothers’ programme of short films and the event was attended by Serbian king Aleksandar Obrenović and his mother, Queen Natalija. More from Tihana Pavićević.
On the occasion of the anniversary, the Cinematheque’s most prestigious award, the Golden Seal, awarded for an overall contribution to the art of cinema, was presented to Serbian film director Dušan Makavejev and actor (and also a director and producer) Ljubiša Samaradžić. The latter told our radio that he was proud to receive this award, which was a great recognition for his 55-year long film career. The director of the Cinematheque, Radoslav Zelenović, who has been successfully running the Cinematheque for twenty years, said that this institution represented both Serbian and world cultural heritage as its rich archives treasure the films of 134 nations. He emphasized that the most important thing was the fact that the Cinematheque’s Archives had been completely renovated and a centre for digitalization opened, which has created conditions for the very delicate tasks of film protection to be performed in Serbia as well, thanks to the funds of the Serbian Ministry of Culture, the French and the Japanese embassies and the EBRD. Besides, after a decade-long battle, the Cinematheque will soon move to a new building.
In addition to the depot intended for preserving colour negatives, the depoes keeping black and white negatives have been reconstructed as well and so have the rooms boasting the most significant and valuable collection of the Cinematheque – its rich collection of nitrate films (films made between 1895 and 1952), which are the most difficult to preserve as they consist of highly flammable film tapes. Thus, for the 14th time, the Cinematheque has organized the traditional Nitrate Film Festival (this year held from June 6 to June 13).
The Cinematheque in Belgrade, founded in 1949 (named the Yugoslav Cinematheque in 1952) is one of the richest film archives in the world. Some 20,000 film copies have been collected in the past ten years alone. An initiative to protect the Cinematheque Museum, which has been showing films since 1952, has been launched recently.