After closing the last cinema Arena in Novi Sad at the end of 2008, a cute photo showing black humour appeared in the newspapers. In the background of the photo was the entrance of the closed cinema, while in the foreground was the poster of our Cinema City film festival. A cinema-city in a city without a single cinema. Is it possible to do that?
55,000 visitors who came to Cinema City 08 are the proof that in this necrophilic time of Novi Sad's film scene, Cinema City 09 is in fact the only true sign of film defence in Serbian Athens, a city of long film tradition. Hence our greater responsibility this year. Cinema City 09 definitely cannot be merely a festival which presents and rewards the best films of national and international scene, but a place where critical film-mass gathers in order to establish harmony and meaning of national film industry. By that, I primarily mean solving the two major problems which destroy the film industry. Those problems are existing piracy and non-functional cinema infrastructure.
