Archive Cinema City 2008.
Cinema City 2008
Cinema City, last year's festival of film and new media, which took
place in Novi Sad from 14th to 21st June, has pushed the boundaries in
culture of watching films and enjoying the seventh art in an entirely
new and positive way. 135 film were presented at twenty locations in
period of eight days. A wide 14-selection choice of foreign and
domestic production, as well as numerous film retrospectives were
offered to the visitors of the festival.

The best film award -
Grand Prix of Festival 2008 was given to
Ballast, the very first film
of American director Lance Hammer. Ballast is a drama which achieved
authentic expression, using particular aesthetics of minimalism, in
depicting complex relationships between people and in showing true
social context of a small rural environment. Ballast was also the
winner of prestigious Sundance Festival in 2008.
The creation of
Icelandic director Olaf de Fleur Johannesson,
The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, also made a great impression. The film is about the life
of a transsexual, Raquela Rios, who bravely faces social rejection in
conservative Catholic surrounding of the Philippines, who tries to
reach freedom and success in relationship and career. The film won the
Teddy Award in Berlin 2008 in category Best Feature Film, and at Cinema
City 2008 it received the award for special contribution to
contemporary film expression.
Apart from previously mentioned,
Swedish film
Let The Right One In
attracted considerable attention of the audience, as well as the
outstanding Norwegian feature
The Art of Negative Thinking, films from
Animatrix selection and especially
Sita Sings the Blues directed by
Nina Paley. Furthermore, numerous films inspired by music from Planet
Rock selection made good impression, horror film fans certainly enjoyed
convincing creations from the genre offered in Best of Horror
selection. Retrospectives represented works of truly great film
creators.