FEST Forward, the industry section of the Belgrade International Film Festival FEST, which took place from 3-5 March, included three strands: the National Selection, presenting nine Serbian fiction and documentary projects; Women in Film, with eight fiction and documentary projects from around Europe, focused on films made by women or with female-focused subject matter; and the Distributors and Exhibitors Convention, aimed at educating and strengthening the sector in the territory.

In the National Selection, the €4,000 award from Film Center Serbia went to the project The Witch Hunters [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by director Raško Miljković, writers Marko Manojlović and Miloš Krečković, and producer Jovana Karaulić, of the company Action Productions. Miljković's first feature-length fiction film is a story about a ten-year-old boy with partial cerebral palsy who prefers to live in his imagination than to face the world limited by his impairment. A new girl comes to his class, and the two strike up a friendship through which he will help her to separate her father from his new wife, who the girl believes is a witch, while she will help the boy to open up to the real world. 

Other projects in the selection included the fiction features Domino Effect by Djordje Milosavljević (recently acclaimed for penning the script for Redemption Street [+lire aussi :
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interview : Miroslav Terzić
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interview : Nikola Ljuca
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The documentaries presented were Do Not Come Home by Danilo Lazović and Miloš Ljubomirović, Sonia by director Marta Popivoda (Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body) and producer Dragana Jovović (Depth Two [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] and Vlado Škafar's Mother [+lire aussi :
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interview : Vlado Škafar
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In the Women in Film section, the €4,000 award from Film Center Serbia and the European Women's Audiovisual Network went to the Polish project Fortnight by director Aga Woszczynska (Cannes Directors’ Fortnight short Fragments) and producer Agnieszka Wasiak (21 x New York [+lire aussi :
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Other projects in the selection were the fiction films Closed to the Public by Croatian director Vanja Sviličić (Zagreb Cappuccino) and producers Ana Grbac and Damir Terešak, of Maxima Film (These Are the Rules [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ines Tanović
fiche film]) and producer Alem Babić, of Dokumenta Sarajevo; and Vesper Seeds by writing-directing-producing team Kristina Buozyte (Vanishing Waves [+lire aussi :
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interview : Kristina Buozyte
fiche film]) and Bruno Samper, with the company Natrix Natrix.

The documentaries in the section were The Black Wedding by Serbian writer-director Dragan Nikolić and producer Jovana Nikolić, of Prababa Production (The Undertaker, Caviar Connection); and Zenit, a co-production between Germany, Austria and Serbia written, directed and produced by Serbia's Miona Bogović and Austria's Ana Hoffner, who are working on the project through the German Film and TV Academy Berlin (DFFB).

Finally, the Distributors and Exhibitors Convention gave out its first ever annual awards. Most notably, Blitz received the Award for Best Distribution Results for a European Film (Of Sheep and Wolves, which sold 14,079 admissions), and Con Film scooped the Best Local Film Distribution Results Award, for Nikola Kojo's comedy Stado (157,207 admissions). Distributor Megacom Film received the Award for the Most Diverse Slate, with 88 Serbian and European titles distributed or screened at festivals in 2016.