Director and screenwriter Vlatko Gilić, one of the most important authors of Yugoslav and Serbian cinematography, died in Belgrade at the age of 92.

He was born on January 1st, 1935 in Podgorica. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade, where he lived after his studies. He started his film career as a stage designer, and he shot his first short feature film, Little Light, in 1966, co-directed with Predrag Golubović.

The American television network NBC included him among the 50 most important directors in the history of world cinema, as the only author from Southeast Europe on that list. Three of his films – Backbone, In continuo and Homo Sapiens – are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Among his most significant works are Homo Homini, One Day more, Love, Power, Backbone, Days of Dreams and Tight Parts. He made his last film, Days of Dreams, in 1980. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the FIPRESCI Award at the Pula Feature Film Festival.

His films achieved notable international success. In continuo was awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1971, while One Day More won the Grand Prix at the Oberhausen Festival and was screened at more than fifty international festivals. The film Love was nominated for the Golden Globe. Gilić’s films were also awarded at festivals in Leipzig, Bellevue, Melbourne, Sydney, Trent and Nyon.

Retrospectives of his work were held in Serbia and abroad. The author’s film festival organized a retrospective in 2020 in cooperation with the Montenegrin Cinematheque, which renewed and digitally restored his short films. A year later, as part of the DOK Cinema Masters program at the Belgrade Youth Center, a retrospective of his achievements was presented to the audience.

His films have also been screened in the United States, including retrospectives at the European Film Festival in Los Angeles, the University of Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive, the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, as well as in Austin, Seattle and New York.

In addition to the author’s work, Vlatko Gilić devoted himself to pedagogical work. He was one of the founders of the Department of Directing at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, where he was elected professor emeritus, he taught at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje, as well as at Harvard University.

Photo/Saša Pančić