FILM FESTIVAL PRVI KADAR /FIRST FRAME/ CONCLUDES

ZVORNIK, NOVEMBER 7 /SRNA/ - The Prvi Kadar /First Frame/ Film Festival concluded today with the Echo of First Frame program, featuring screenings of the festival's best films.

Festival Artistic Director Aleksandra Mitrić Štifanić told SRNA that the 20th edition of the Prvi Kadar Film Festival was a great success and that she was particularly pleased with attendance at festival screenings for both the youngest audiences and secondary school students.

"This means that we need to continue working together to educate and develop film audiences, thereby helping to expand the cinema network, which is very important," Štifanić said.

She said that this would be one of the objectives of the Republika Srpska film industry development strategy, noting that Prvi Kadar has a particularly important educational and formative role.

Štifanić said that a three-day animation film workshop was held in Zvornik, led by mentors Ana Nedeljković and Nikola Majdak for elementary school pupils, while a two-day documentary film workshop, which also included an analysis of film criticism, was organized for secondary school students.

Nedeljković said that during the workshops, children were shown how animated films are made, and that this year's theme was the city of Zvornik.

The workshop participants were girls aged 13 and 14 who had no previous experience in making this type of film. Nedeljković said that the result was phenomenal, and she hoped that some of them would continue pursuing filmmaking.

She added that some of the girls had said they would try to make their own films, as they already had some ideas.

Three short animated films were produced as part of the animation workshops in Zvornik. They will premiere next year at the opening of the Prvi Kadar /First Frame/ Film Festival in the town.

Awards at this year's Film Festival were presented in Istočno Sarajevo, where a total of 30 films were screened in five competitive categories.

The award for Best Film went to Preko Praga by Tara Gajović of Serbia, which won the festival's Grand Prix, the Golden Film Clapperboard.

The Festival's general sponsor is the Republika Srpska Audio-Visual Centre. Support was provided by the cities of Istočno Sarajevo and Zvornik, and the municipalities of Istočno Novo Sarajevo and Istočna Ilidža.

The festival's media sponsor is the Media System of Republika Srpska – SRNA.