Magnificent7 Opening Night 2024
You only have your 20th birthday once and that is to be celebrated. Even on a Friday the 13th… The celebration of the 20th edition of the Magnificent7, the European Feature Documentary Film Festival, took place at the MTS Hall on that day and as you can see on the photo (taken by Ema Bednarz) there was a full house in the cinema hall with Zoran Popovic at the microphone welcoming the audience AND, one after the other, early supporters and contributors to the festival. I remember clearly the same people on stage in the Sava Centre 20 years ago. Nevena Djonlic who was head of the film department and opened the door for the two, Svetlana and Zoran Popovic. Sava Centre was the venue until 2018, now the festival has its home at mts Hall downtown, near the Parliament – the latter means that military parades have been performed the last couple of days, blocking traffic; luckily that was finished when the screenings were about to start. On stage also film director Sonja Blagojevic, producer and human rights activist Iva Plemic, cinematographer and still key organiser at the festival Jelena Stankovic, technical supervisor Nenad Popovic, key staff member Ema Teokarevic, responsible for the workshop Lea Vahrušev and on the far left Svetlana Popovic, who should have been in the front next to her husband. Two filmmakers were absent, Andrijana Stojkovic and Mila Turajlic.
After the screening of Polish Jakub Piątek’s “Pianoforte”, we all went to celebrate with champagne, cake and meze at a nice Greek restaurant nearby. Magnificent night!
