Avala Film Yugoslavia to be sold!

Dear friends, guests and colleagues of MAGNIFICENT 7 Festival, we’ve got a terribly important issue to share with you, hoping you will react, sign the petition and spread the word about the unthinkable events that are about to take place in Serbia and the tragic effect they will have on the Yugoslav film heritage:

It’s been looming as a threat for years: AVALA FILM, Yugoslavia’s biggest film studio and its entire film catalogue, will be sold at auction on April 22nd.

The Avala Film catalogue, consisting of over 200 fiction feature films, and 400 documentaries, including winners of the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals, produced between 1947-1992, is included in the sale. Seeing as Avala Film almost half of all Yugoslav films, this means that the rights to half of our film heritage will fall into private hands.

The Serbian filmmaking community, despite valiant efforts, has not managed to achieve its goals in lobbying the Serbian government to attach conditions to the sale.
We have put up a petition to protest this act of inexplicable negligence towards Yugoslav film heritage, demanding that the rights to the Avala Film catalogue be nationalized and transferred to the Yugoslav Cinemateque, which was the legally-nominated depot for films in Yugoslavia.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/361/261/305/grad-izgubljenih-filmova-city-of-lost-films/

The “City of Lost Films” campaign will mark the final 10 days before the auction, in a countdown of clips from cult films produced by Avala film that we will post daily, as well as videos taking you on a last tour through the Yugoslav Cinecittà.
If you would like to get involved in this campaign, please sign&share the petition and follow & share the content on facebook page and website of the campaign.

PETITION:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/361/261/305/grad-izgubljenih-filmova-city-of-lost-films/

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/900/611/889/grad-izgubljenih-filmova-avala-film/

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE (in English):

http://www.cinemakomunisto.com/avala-film/

CAMPAIGN FACEBOOK PAGE (in Serbian):

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cinema-Komunisto/118780191518017?fref=ts

PHOTO from Cinema Komunisto.

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Tue Steen Müller
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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