It gives me great pleasure to be able to address the esteemed audience at the SEE FF-Paris-Berlin-Washington 2022 Southeast European Film Festival through this video message. For years, the SEE festival has managed to bring to fruition the idea of presenting the very best of current cinema production from Southeast Europe to the cultural sphere of Western Europe and America. In addition to affirming talent, promoting film professionals and their creativity, the SEE festival transcends differences, it elevates, connects people, makes us learn from each other. In times such as these, marked by great social and political divisions -- culture, as an area where dialogue and exchange of experiences are immanent – enables links in a divided society, encourages cohesion and better understanding, which will bring about new, positive ideas and build stronger connections. A culture that is constantly growing and evolving provides support to its members and encourages others to join.

Together, we can achieve small victories that will lead to a true revival, and create a deserving place for culture in every country and every society.

Montenegro is once again represented at the SEE festival with feature and documentary films. This year's edition will also present the award for the best documentary film, named after the great French and globetrotting documentary filmmaker, "Frédéric Rossif" (1922-1990), who was born in Cetinje. And I am particularly honoured that this year's award will go to the famous Montenegrin filmmaker Vladimir Perović.

The first feature-length film with a Montenegrin theme "There Is No Resurrection without Death" was produced by the Italian film company "Sangro Film", and premiered on April 14, 1922 in the most modern cinema in Rome at the time "In grande cinema Volturno". In March 1949, the Film Production Company "Lovćen-Film" was founded in Cetinje, which in May 1951 made its first film, a documentary report "Congress of Sportsmen". In October 1955, "Lovćen Film" produced the first feature film of Montenegrin cinematography, entitled "False Emperor", which is also the first historical film in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Film art is not only an extremely important segment of culture, but also a development resource and a country brand. Hence, our goal is to improve the position and visibility of Montenegrin cinematography, so that it has the future it deserves. The Ministry of Culture and Media will be committed to working on changes and amendments to the legislation in the field of culture, and through planned, stable and continuous action, it will work to increase Montenegro’s presence at the international level. It is our obligation to pay special attention to young cultural creators, provide them with a stable future, nurture and strengthen cultural creativity, which we pledge to do. We will start with an important process of drafting the National Cultural Development program 2022-2026 in accordance with the Law on Culture.
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With deep appreciation for what you have achieved since the first edition in 2011 and for what you are yet to achieve in the future, congratulations on your sustained presence, and I wish you a successful Festival!

Dragan Bjelogrlic is one of the greatest Serbian actors, directors, and producers. Apart from a successful acting career that lasts 40 years, in the last two decades, he also devoted to producing and directing movies and TV shows, consequently becoming one of the most recognized and successful cinematographic creators in the entire region. As an actor, he played over 90 roles on film and TV series.

He started directing in 2009. He directed three films that brought in 2.500.000 viewers to the movie theaters which makes him the most successful director in the Balkans in the last ten years. His last film "Toma" attracted over 1.100.000 viewers and became the most seen film in the cinematographic history of the Balkans. The film "Toma" closed the 2021 Sarajevo Film Festival.

He directed the "Black sun" series (2 seasons ) which is the first series of the region streamed on the "Amazon Prime" platform. His directorial debut "Montevideo, God bless you" was shown on over fifty international festivals (Moscow/Audience Choice Award, Warsaw/Audience Choice Award, Beijing/Grand Prix, Sao Paulo, Jakarta, etc.) and was the Serbian candidate for the Oscars. It won The Best Director and The Best Film award at the Serbian "FIPRESCI" association.

He produced six films that together won over thirty awards on various film festivals and five TV series.

Dragan Bjelogrlic was born on October 10, 1963. After finishing elementary and high school in Belgrade, he enrolled at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDA). His first acting role in front of the camera was at the age of 15, as the character of Sava Jovanovic Sirogojno in the film "Bosko Buha" (1978).

After graduating from the FDA in 1989, he had a number of roles that made him a well-known actor and also recognized as one of Serbia's leading artists. He attracted a lot of public attention with the role of Slobodan Popadic in the series "Better Life" (1987-1990). After that role, he was in the TV show "Forgotten" (1990) and the films "The Black Bomber" (1992), "Full Moon over Belgrade" (1993), " Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" (1996). So far, he has played in almost 60 films, about 30 TV shows and dramas and 11 theater plays.

At the beginning of 1994, together with his brother Goran Bjelogrlic, he founded the production company "Cobra Film", which has produced some of the most famous theater plays, films, and TV series in Serbia and the Ex-Yu region.

In 2020, he established Master class at Faculty for media and communications, Singidunum University Belgrade. ​

Mitko Janchev has a BA in Geological engineering, graduated at the University "Goce Delchev" - Shtip. He completed his Master's degree in technical sciences, petrology, mineralogy and geochemistry and recently received the university's highest academic recognition, a PhD thesis at the Institute of geology. 

He is the owner and manager of the company Kozuvcanka from Kavadarci, the first private company for water production in Macedonia. He became a manager of the company at the age of 23. Throughout his 13 years as manager of the company, Janchev has achieved many successes for its development, which is proven by the fact that Kozuvcanka is one of the 100 most successful companies in the country. Under Janchev's leadership, the company has also started cooperation with the world-renowned brand Sinalco from Germany. He has been making big investments in the development and advancement of the company's brands and in 2015 he opened a brewery to introduce two light beers on the market.

Janchev is known for his humanity and his efforts for the good of society, which is proven by the large number of activities and donations in all areas. He is a supporter of many sport events and sport clubs, both in Kavadarci and throughout the country. He makes special contributions to sports in his town Kavadarci, with over 10 years of financial support to KK Feni Industry, Judo Club "Kozuvcanka", a number of football clubs in Kavadarci, GRK Tikvesh etc. In addition, he supports many cultural and artistic events and through several donations contributes to the development of medicine in Kavadarci and Macedonia.

Mr. Mitko Janchev is particularly proud of his privilege - President of the initiative board for the construction of the church "St. Petka" in Kavadarci, where he is one of the main investors of the holy temple.
Through his selfless engagement for a better Kavadarci, he has gained the trust of his fellow citizens by being elected as Mayor of the Municipality of Kavadarci in 2017.

Until 2018, Mitko Janchev has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Macedonia, as well as President of the Regional Chamber of Commerce - Kavadarci. In the same year, he has established the "Nikola Janchev" Foundation, a foundation named after his father. The foundation has a single goal, to help people through humanitarian activities. Also, he waives the mayor's salary, which is monthly transferred to the foundation's account.

His hard work as Mayor of Kavadarci together with the Council of the Municipality of Kavadarci makes him one of the most successful mayors in Macedonia. In October 2021,  Mr. Mitko Janchev became mayor of the Municipality of Kavadarci for the second time.

​Izet Curi is a fashion designer and stylist based in Paris, specializing in luxury ready-to-wear haute couture.

After his brilliant career in Paris, two schools in Kosovo and Skopje: “Design Factory” and “The International Fashion Institute Izet Curi”.

Since 2011, he has been leading the sewing and model making workshops1 of the Fashion Federation (certification body for fashion diplomas). He was also appointed artistic director of the Macedonian company Astibo in the same year.

He notably designed the uniforms of the pilots of the Patrouille de France and the decoration of their planes, and the costumes of the hostesses of the Cannes Film Festival.

Izet Curi has gained his invaluable knowledge and experience while working with the best fashion designers such as: Hermes International, Thierry Mugler, Azzedine Alaia, Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, Chloe and Chanel. These are just a few names that have marked his career path.

Born on September 2, 1948 in Kosovo, he spent his childhood in Skopje, raised by his mother with his 8 brothers and sisters. He began sewing in 1962, at the age of 13. At that time, the children went to school only in the morning, and his mother, in order to prevent him from wandering, forced all his children to learn a trade. She choose for him: it will be sewing! He accepted it without hesitation, and to learned with the best craftsman. He will learn the manual art of cutting, molding, embroidery and tailoring. In 1966, he even managed the shop.

In the 1970s, he decided to move to Paris in order to improve his skills. He arrives in France, aged 21, where he managed to find a place in the workshop of a subcontractor of the Hermès brand. In 1973, he was offered a position there, where he stayed for 4 years.
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In 1975, he met Thierry Mugler, who "revolutionized fashion by the unique and modern style of his designs", according to Izet. In 1977, he became the model maker of this very young fashion house.

During his collaboration with Thierry Mugler, he met Azzedine Alaïa. In 1981, Izet Curi helped him found his own fashion house. They worked together until 1988. In 1994, he returned as technical director of his garment workshops.
In 1997 Izet Curi created his first haute couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier.

Between 2000 and 2007, Izet Curi collaborated with renowned designers and brands such as Anne Valérie Hash, Pascal Humbert, Chloé, and Frédéric Molenac, Jean-Claude Jitrois, Chanel and Christian Lacroix.

In 1989, Izet Curi had the opportunity to make costumes for cinema and theater. It was at this time that he became the official tailor of various personalities such as Richard Berry, Isabelle Adjani, Christophe Lambert, Josiane Balasko, Gérard Depardieu, Johnny Hallyday and Emir Kusturica.

 An essential figure of Yugoslav cinema, Karpo Godina infused the radical “Black Wave” of the 1960s with an irrepressible expressive freedom—squarely targeted against all forms of repression—and thrived long after the end of Titoism and the breakup of Yugoslavia in civil war. For more than 30 years, the half-Slovenian, half-Macedonian filmmaker has brought a playfully anarchical spirit to the poetics and politics of film, moving breathlessly between fiction and nonfiction in his avant-garde shorts of the 1960s and ’70s and his feature films of the 1980s and ’90s.
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Godina was a frequent collaborator of Bahrudin “Bato” Čengić, Želimir Žilnik, Lordan Zafranović, and other pioneering members of the Black Wave, and he has since worked comfortably in the former Yugoslavian republics as a director, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor.
 
In 1969, one small, no-budget independent Yugoslav film won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale. It was Želimir Žilnik‘s seminal Early Works, today considered the main benchmark of what was to become knows as the Yugoslav Black Wave, and in the same time introduced the world to a cinematographer that will come to define an era in edgy and transgressive European cinema – Karpo Aćimović Godina.

Karpo Godina was born in Skopje in 1943, the son of Viktor Aćimović, photographer, journalist, revolutionary and bohemian and Milena Godina, actress and co-founder of the Macedonian State Theatre. He spent his early childhood in Skopje, and adolescence in Maribor. Later, he began shooting 8mm experimental films. In the sixties he studied film, TV radio and theatre direction at the Ljubljana Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, where he later on taught as professor of film directing and camera.

As a cinematographer, Karpo Godina worked on films that defined Yugoslav and Europan cinema- from Žilnik’s short The Black Film, to challenging and subversive titles such as Bahrudin Bato Čengić‘s The Role of My Family in the World Revolution and Life of a Shock Force Worker, and Lordan Zafranović‘s Passion According to Matthew and Occupation in 26 Pictures. He also lensed today’s cult items A Little Train Robbery by Dejan Šorak, and Landscape with a Woman by Ivica Matić, and collaborated on international productions such as The Magic Snowman (1987), Journey to the South (1988), Private War (1988). As a DoP, he made a total of 21 feature films, 26 shorts, and 12 TV dramas.

As a director, Godina’s three features – The Medusa Raft, Red Boogie and Artificial Paradise – are highly regarded in the arthouse circles, and were screened at almost all major film festivals: Cannes, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Sidney, Melbourne, Toronto, Edinburgh, Istanbul, San Francisco, Rotterdam, Strasbourg and many others.

However, his most influential films were shorts, which he practically re-invented with his fresh formal approach, combining love for humanity and contempt for uniformity and authority in  About the Art of Love or a Film with 14441 Frames, Healthy People for Fun, and Fried Brain of Pupilija Ferkeverk. He also participated in cult hippie-era omnibus film I Miss Sonia Henie, together with Tinto Brass, Puriša Djordjević, Milos Forman, Buck Henry, Dušan Makavejev, Paul Morrissey and Frederic Wiseman.
 
As an editor, he worked on five feature films, 16 shorts, 11 TV dramas and seven 8mm experimental films, and he also directed operas and theatre plays.
He was mentor for directing on 29 student short feature films and these films got about 30 national and international awards.

Karpo Godina is a member of  IMAGO – European Federation of Cinematographers. IMAGO’s jury selected The Medusa Raft as the most prominent film for the year 1980.
As a jury member he contributed at more than 50 national and international film festivals.
In 2006 he received the Prešern Award for Life Achievement- the highest state award in the field of arts and culture in Slovenia.

In 2011, he got the appellation Professor Emeritus of the University of Ljubljana.
In 2013, the footage Godina filmed around villages of Vojvodina after shooting Early Works but never completed into a motion picture, was made into an acclaimed documentary titled Karpotrotter, directed by Slovenian film critic and film-maker Matjaz Ivanisin.

In 2016, Karpo Godina was awarded the Underground Spirit prize at the European Film Festival Palić, a recognition assigned for exceptional work in the field of independent film and unique poetics developed off the film industry mainstream.