Magnificent7 Welcome Words

Welcome to this special edition number seven! Did we really have 7 editions, that means 49 films including those of this year. Wow… And we have had almost full houses in the Sava Centre during most of the years! And wherever I go and meet filmmakers who have been here, they remember with smiling eyes how it was to be at the festival in an atmosphere full of generosity and the chance to meet colleagues and have some intense moments together. For one who is a frequent flyer to events all over – to come to Belgrade every year is pure pleasure.

As it is to take part in the selection process. From going to the post office in Copenhagen with some dvd’s in an envelope, have them sent to Belgrade and wait for the reaction from the Magnificent7 Head Quarter resided at the Popovic’s. The responses are always very polite and nice, but also precise and analytical and critical, and always with a fine humanistic approach to the films.

7 is a magic number. I googled it to find inspiration for this text…. seven days in a week, seven deadly sins, seven virtues, the meaning of the number in different religions and so on. And a mention of “The Seven Samurai”, the film of Kurosawa, the director who also made “Rashomon” where the same event/thing/story is told from different angles.

Maybe this is what we have been doing at Magnificent7 festival? Basically we have told the same Story in 49 films about Life and Death, Joy and Sorrow, Love, Happiness – about the human condition of today. Told from different angles, filtered through different temperaments. That is what documentaries can do, right?

Enjoy the 7M7!

Tue Steen Müller
Copenhagen, December 2010

Photo: Me in October in Belgrade, a still taken in connection with a film shot by Andrijana Stojkovic, “The Box”, where she needed someone to play a Danish diplomat!

Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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