The international film festival FEST established two years ago a competition section in the scope of its program. It was entitled Europe out of Europe for two reasons: on one hand, it is an integral part of B2B – FEST industry events gathering producers, distributors and filmmakers from the entire Europe, focusing on emerging cinematographies. On the other hand, it is dedicated to films created in European countries that are not yet part of the European Union.
The competition program involves with films and the international jury decides about the winner and announces it the last day of the Festival, on the ceremonial closing. The donor of the award – an object of art – is the daily Politika. The first winner of the Europe out of Europe was the film To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die of Jamshed Usmonov. On the 36th FEST, the winner was Kristijan Milic’s Alive and Dead.

FEST 2009 will, in the scope of the competition program, show 9 premieres. The following films will compete for the “Eritrocite” award, made by sculptor Nikola Pesic:

Guardians of the Night, BiH
Nobody’s Son, Croatia
Sultes, Russia
Return of the Prodigal Son, Armenia
A Gift from Stalin, Kazakhstan
Milk, Turkey
Time of the Comet, Albania
Life and Death of the Porn Gang, Serbia
The Other Shore, Georgia

The films competing for the award shall be shown as premieres in the Cultural Center – DKC at 20.30h and replayed in the Balkan cinema at 12.30. This year’s jury comprises Turkish Director Jesim Ustaoglu, the former Director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, now film critic and agent Michael Demopoulos and the film critic of the Politika daily. Dubravka Lakic.