The sixteenth “Leskovac International Festival of Film Directing – LIFFE” will be held from September 14th to 19th. In the Main Competition Program the best films of the region, awarded at prestigious festivals, will be shown. The president of the jury of this selection will be the Slovenian director Damjan Kozole, whom the local audience remembers for the films “Night Life” and “Slovenian Woman”. His films were recognized by the jury and the audience in Berlin, Karlovy Vary and Valencia.

The award for best director is named after the legendary director Živojin Žika Pavlović, and LIFFE began its “Greats of Film Directiing” edition with a monography about him. This year, the artistic team of the LIFFE festival will introducea new award for the “Wild Film” international program, which will be named after another famous Serbian director – Dušan Makavejev, an author who started his career together with Živojin Pavlović at the Cinema Club “Belgrade”.

The president of the jury of this selection will be the famous actress Greta Scacchi, winner of the Emmy Award and prestigious nominations for BAFTA and “Golden Globe”. During her impressive four-decade long career, she has had the privilege of working with many distinguished directors, including Robert Altman, Alan Pakula, the Taviani Brothers, James Ivory, Margaret von Trott, Wolfgang Petersen and Andrei Konchalovsky.

She played a particularly striking role in the film “Coca-Cola Kid” by Dušan Makavejev.

As part of the “Wild Film” international program, films from all over the world were carefully selected that reflect the dynamism and innovation of Dušan Makavejav’s film work. The local audience will have the privilege of seeing these films premiere in Leskovac at LIFFE.

As part of the “Student Film” festival program, films directed by students from the region will be shown. The president of the jury is Stefan Arsenijević, a well-known Serbian director. The award for the best director is named “Radomir Bajo Šaranović”, after the famous film director and screenwriter, professor of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.

LIFFE, as the only regional festival of film direction, introduces a new category of awards for the best directed drama episode of the series and the best directed mini-series from this edition. More than 200 eminent directors from the entire region were invited to vote for these awards. The competition includes 35 series created in the previous two years on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

The complete program of the festival will be announced by the end of August.