The 56th Bitef festival was closed tonight by the performances Love by Alexander Zeldin, and Crises by Žiga Divjak. After the performances, the closing ceremony was held, after which the guests enjoyed the party.
The Bitef artistic director Ivan Medenica presented the international jury: Stefanie Carp (dramaturge and theatre curator, Germany), Christine Dössel (theatre critic, Germany), Selma Spahić (director, Bosnia and Hercegovina), Vanja Ejdus (actress, Serbia), and Dino Pešut (playwright and dramaturge, Croatia).
The president of the jury, Stefanie Carp, read the jury decisions giving the Grand Prix to two performances: Solo by Nina Kranjac and any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones by Jan Martens. The Special Award “Jovan Ćirilov” is given to the performance Love by Alexander Zeldin.
Politika jury, consisting of theatre directors Haris Pašović and Ana Tomović, the editor of the culture section Gordana Popović, theatre critic Ana Tasić, and journalist Borka Golubović Trebješanin, decided to give the 44th Politika Award for the best directing to Jan Martens for the performance any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones.
The artistic director of Bitef, Ivan Medenica, read the Audience Award, which went to the performance World Without Women.
Jury statements in full can be found here.
The award ceremony and the party were held in the Docker Brewery & Beer Garden.
This year’s Bitef was held under the slogan We - the Heroes of Our Own Labour, and presented nine productions from Germany, Belgium, France, Mexico, Serbia, Slovenia, and Great Britain. The central topic focused on labour, the labour market after the pandemic, workers’ rights, as well as working conditions in performing arts. This year, many guests visited the festival, about five hundred of them, which made it possible, in these trying times of global economic crisis, right-wing extremism, pandemic, and the war in Ukraine, for Belgrade to turn, for ten days at least, into the theatre centre of the world.
The festival was traditionally supported by the Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the EU delegation to Serbia. Again, this year, Goethe Institute, the British Council, the French Institute in Belgrade were by our side, as well as the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Belgrade, and the Embassy of Belgium in Serbia. Bitef’s friend and partner is again this year I&F Grupa, and within it McCann Belgrade, the creative agency of the festival. The partners of the festival are also Pošta Srbije, Generali Insurance, as well as the long-lasting friend of the festival Coca-Cola Hellenic Serbia, Alma Quattro, Info Media Group. Acibadem Bel Medic, Halo Creative team, Docker Brewery & Beer Garden.
We are particularly grateful to the Tourist Organization of Belgrade, Vulkan Publishing, wineries Virtus, Tikveš, Temet and Verkat, Stara Sokolova, restaurants Mezestoran, Kuhinjica, Dardaneli, the restaurant Tri and the bistro Tri. We are grateful for the delicious food to our friends from Domaće kiflice, Pizza Fabrika, Chinese restaurant Black White, Kuglica Handcrafted Gelato, Ispeci pa reci, Kolačići sreće and Kafeterija.
