The European Capital of Culture project opens new and limitless possibilities for encouraging cultural cooperation of Novi Sad cultural scene with all countries and cities in Europe. Representatives of the ‘Novi Sad 2021’ Foundation constantly work on creating new cultural bridges between Novi Sad and European cities along the Danube River, as well as around Europe. This encourages the internationalisation of the cultural scene of our city, develops new friendly connections and new dialogue, and encourages connections and spirit of cooperation and understanding among all citizens of Europe. This especially means the development of new cultural connections with cities that Novi Sad has very limited or non-existent exchange.
The above mentioned is confirmed with the new project of cooperation between Novi Sad 2021 and Pafos 2017 projects. The first project of collaboration between these cities within the European Capital of Culture project opens possibilities for Novi Sad artists to present short films at the Cine Attikon international film festival in Pafos, and in this way make Novi Sad cinematography part of the programme of Pafos 2017 – European Capital of Culture.
The films that will be shown in Pafos were selected by Đorđe Kaćanski, renowned film expert and connoisseur of Novi Sad film scene. As he stressed in the explanation for his selection, ‘it is not hart to decide what is a true bridge between all ages, religions and nations – it’s love’. On Tuesday, 5 September, three films will be screened at Cine Attikon festival: Swallow, directed by Milan Belegišanin, Fortress Phenomenon, directed by Dragan Stojmenović and Szilárd Antal, and Open City, work by a group of young authors from Novi Sad under mentorship of Nena Tot Redžić. In addition to the above mentioned films, the representatives of the Novi Sad 2021 project will present cultural potentials of our city and possibilities for cooperation.
At the same time, thanks to good cooperation and communication of the teams of these two European Capitals of Culture, and having in mind the two topics that are in focus this year, there will be meetings focused on raising capacities of the Novi Sad 2021 project. Three-day training regarding volunteerism will also be organised, having in mind preparations for establishing volunteer platform of the city of Novi Sad in order to enable systematic and efficient approach to volunteerism that is an important segment of the European Capital of Culture project. This will raise the capacities of team members, who will have an opportunity to see, on a practical example of an international film festival, how a volunteering system of a European Capital of Culture functions and how we should prepare for future activities.
We would like to remind that the ‘Novi Sad 2021’ Foundation has initiated the implementation of a series of strategic measures focus on encouraging internationalisation of cultural cooperation in our city.
