European Film Festival Palić

European Film Festival Palić, established in 1992. is one of the most important cultural events in Serbia. Due to its authentic location and diverse programming EFF Palić has become a European cinema safe heaven which presents more than 100 films of all genres in up to 15 selections every year, treating established authors and new European talents equally. Also, EFF Palić is honored to be the host of more than 100 European artists which come to the Festival to present their work.

The festival is not pretentious and "tawdry" manifestation of false glitter and glamour. At the festival, a meeting place for a large number of film professionals is created, the media and fans of the film during the festival are free and unencumbered to meet and exchange ideas. Due to persistent insistence on quality the Festival has gained a very significant reputation in Europe. Therefore, a number of significant names in the past 25 years, were guest of EFF Palić and continue to come back to us.

The festival is open in every way. Palić was the first place in Serbia during the nineties where Croatian films and films from Bosnia and Herzegovina have been screened. The tradition of openness has continued into the 21st century and it is a pleasure to see the participants and movies from all parts of Europe at one place. The atmosphere of tolerance and multiculturalism is supported by the very character of Subotica and Palić as a multinational and multicultural environment. All programs are announced in three languages (in addition to English as the official language of the festival, also used Serbian and Hungarian). It is also important to note that the projections of all the programs, except the Official Selection are free and so accessible to everyone regardless of their financial and property status.

The objectives of the European Film Festival Palić are:

• to present the most valuable artistic films from European cinema;
• contribute to the promotion of new European films;
• perform exchange of experiences and creating international friendships;
• to promote the film industry in Serbia; allow local audiences to learn about the most important European achievements .

Our aim is best described by the Festival Manifesto:

• We believe that through the exploration of the relationship between the real and the possible, art can contribute to reaffirmation of a more humane world.
• We believe that entertainment and consumption are not authentic symbols of the entire epoch, and that sense of social and moral order has not yet lost all its radicalism.
• We believe that globalizing power of cultural imperialism should be confronted with broadness of human spirit and authentic art, regardless of the fact that the winner of that competition has long been known.
• We believe that inspiration for conceiving a utopian project of cultural emancipation and deserting the glitter of the global entertainment industry can be provided by Europe which, though often torn between power and wisdom, still offers a number of opportunities.
• We believe that European spirit is able of experiencing film art as a medium which corresponds to human need for play, fantasy and other substitutes for the real, but also understanding it as a truthful document of reality.
• We believe that European film offers a measure of autonomy in relation to self-reproducing power of global market institutions which have turned even the cultural space into a brilliant investment field.
• By means of selecting the highest quality modern European films who accept no compromises, the European Film Festival Palić wants to prove that this kind of belief is not in vain, and that any attempt at emancipation and renewal of critical consciousness truly makes sense.