Kustendorf international film festival opens in Serbia

The ninth edition of Kustendorf, one of the most important film festivals in Serbia, opened at hill slopes of a village in western Serbia Friday evening.

A total of 17 films from Serbia, France, Germany, Mexico, Hungary Iceland, Croatia, Russia, Spain, Palestine, China, Australia and Iran, all made by young and promising directors, will compete for the festival's main prize Golden Egg.

Among the competitors are Qiu Yang from Changzhou, China, with his film "Under the Sun" which premiered at the last year's Cannes Film Festival; Salah Salehi from Iran with his film "Unknown"; young director Gudmundur ArnarGudmundsson from Iceland with "Artun", and Jure Pavlovic from Croatia whose film "Picnic" premiered at last year's Berlinale.

A segment of the main festival program, under the name "Contemporary Trends", will highlight some of the best movies in the past year. "Dheepan", last year's winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival directed by Jacques Audiard and "The Treasure" by Corneliu Porumboiu which received the A Certain Talent Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, will be screened during the festival.

Until January 27, audience attending the festival will have the chance to participate in workshops, attend lectures about film production or visit exhibitions.

Kustendorf festival has been held every year since 2008. It is a festival organized by Rasta International, Serbian film director Emir Kusturica's production company. It is held in the village of Drvengrad, also known as Kustendorf, whose construction was sponsored by Kusturica. The festival has since hosted many famed film directors and actors such as Nikita Mihalkov, Jim Jarmusch and Monica Belucci. Enditem