Magnificent 7 Belgrade – Day 1

I warn you – it is my intention to report from the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade that starts tonight with the screening of ”The New Rijksmuseum – the Film” by Oeke Hoogendijk. The reporting will include a lot about films, for sure, but also about the atmosphere in this wonderful city and about the equally wonderful team behind the festival’s 11th edition. Dedicated and passionate film lovers who can be proud of a festival that attracts a huge audience. We expect more than 1000 spectators at the Sava Centre at 8pm!

We (my wife is with me) arrived wednesday around midnight with Wizz from Malmö, where we lined up to check in next to a fine photo of football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, local hero in Malmö, where he grew up, Bosnian origins. At Nikolaj Tesla airport we were met by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, and one of the loyal Magnificent7 team members, Andrijana Stojkovic, film director and editor. To stay in the football world, Svetlana Popovic brought me a poster that advertises the screening of ”Messi”, a film we are looking forward to show to the Belgrade audience, who might be more interested in a certain Djokovic…

Yesterday morning Zoran Popovic and I were interviewed on N1 television, which is a new (started October 2014), a regional news channel à lá CNN, broadcasting from Sarajevo, Zagreb and Belgrade. It is my general impression – take a look at the FB page of the festival – that the press is very interested in the festival and so are a good number of restaurants that in all years have been supporting the festival by inviting its guests for lunches or dinners. Yesterday we were at a vegan restaurant Radost House, Pariska 3 – delicious meal, ”good for your stomach before all the meat you will have”, as said cinematographer Jelena Stankovic, also a loyal team member of M7. Back to Crown Plaza, which has been the festival hotel since the very beginning, apart from one year where it was under renovation. It is difficult to be negative here, actually impossible, lovely hotel.

Photo from previous festival – Zoran Popovic, Svetlana Popovic and I having a rakia at the legendary ?.

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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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