International Film and Music Festival Kustendorf will be held from 17 to 23 January 2012 in Drvengrad in Mokra Gora, it was announced at the press conference

The founder of the festival, film director Emir Kusturica, pointed out that Kustendorf is for the fifth year in a row a meeting point for future filmmakers and already acclaimed authors, who are able to exchange their ideas in an authentic environment without the terror of advertisements and market demands. 

- In the modern world where the terror of market reigns and only successful things are promoted, there is psychopathological trend that identifies good and successful, Schwarzenegger and Antonioni, Lou Reed and Natasa Bekvalac, in which Van Damme is raised to the same level as Tarkovsky. Our idea is to make a distinction between Antonioni and Schwarzenegger, to separate what is good and of high quality from the commercial and inartistic. Kustendorf has a warrior-like attitude when it comes to defending what is valuable and our task is to spread the idea of cinema as culture. At Kustendorf, we fight for the mythical image of human species as opposed to Hollywood's simplified, trivial and cheap approach, Kusturica said.

Introducing the main programmes of the 5^th Kustendorf, Emir Kusturica specially announced the Retrospective of Greatness that will present the films of two cult film directors: Kim Ki-duk from South Korea and Nuri Bilge Ceylan from Turkey. They will also be the guests of honor and give workshops for students after their screenings.

The international jury consisting of the Iranian actress Leila Hatami (the Jury’s president), a French producer Pierre Edelman and a Serbian actor and producer Zoran Cvijanović, will give Golden, Silver and Bronze Egg awards to the best films in the Competition Programme. The Award for the Best Cinematography “Vilko Filač” will be decided upon by the world famous cinematographer Martin Šec and celebrated Serbian sound editor and designer Svetolik Mića Zajc.

Kusturica has also announced the guests of the upcoming festival, saying that Kustendorf will be visited by great names of author’s film such as: brothers Dardenne, Marjane Satrapi, Frederikke Aspöck, Asghar Farhadi, Andreas Dresen, but also special guests as Thierry Frémaux, the General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, the Oscar-winning actor Benicio Del Toro, and famous French actress Isabelle Huppert.

The new festival programme New Authors will present first feature movies by the authors with a distinguished and original film language.

Predrag Marković, the minister of Culture, Media, and Information Society of the Republic of Serbia, said that this ministry has been supporting the festival from its very beginning, thus participating in the creation of tradition that is not only film, but the combination of several arts at the great place such as Mećavnik.

- There is no glamour at Kustendorf, but there are true stars. As we have just heard, the great participants are announced, as well as young talented people who are on their way to become “a class”, the minister Markovic said.

In addition to film programmes and workshops, the rich music programme is also announced featuring the following famous artists: Pelageya from Russia, The Rosenberg Trio from the Netherlands, Stribor and the Poisoners from Serbia, Adam Stinga from Moldova, Sonido Gallo Negro from Mexico, and the most popular trumpet orchestra in the world, Boban and Marko Markovic Orchestra.