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5th day of 33rd European Film Festival Palic

21.07.2026.

33rd European Film Festival Palić – Day 5

"Echoes of Saint George" by Jelena Bajić Jočić at the Closing of the European Film Festival Palić

On the final day of the festival, Wednesday, July 22, “Echoes of Saint George” by Jelena Bajić Jočić will be screened out of competition at 9 p.m. at the Summer Stage in Palić, as part of the Official Selection. On the same evening, the Aleksandar Lifka Award in the category of domestic filmmakers will be presented to director and actor Radoš Bajić, along with the awards for the best films of the festival.

Inspired by true events, the story is set in the remote village of Mala Braina, in southern Serbia. Stanoje, a proud farmer rooted to his ancestral home on Mount Radan, lives a solitary life with his ailing father, stubbornly resisting the pressure of an Albanian gang that plunders his forest and threatens to seize his land. After his father's death, he is left utterly alone. One night, in an act of self-defense, he fires at a silhouette in the dark and discovers he has killed a state- protected bear fitted with a GPS tracker. Suddenly, a man whom the system failed to protect for years becomes a suspect pursued by that very same system. While investigating the case, young police inspector Sonja begins to question the boundary between the law and justice. Torn between duty and conscience, she risks her own career to protect a man who has become a symbol of survival, dignity, and resistance.

The Parallels and Encounters competition programme will feature “To the Victory!” by Valentyn Vasyanovych at 6 p.m. at the Abazija Cinema in Palić.

Set in Ukraine in the near future, after the war has ended, the film follows a director who is out of work, out of luck, and out of touch with his family abroad. While his wife and daughter built a new life in Vienna, he stays behind – confused, restless, and convinced that things will get better. Eventually. Probably. Maybe.

“Heroes of Halyard” by Radoš Bajić will be screened at the Eurocinema at 3 p.m. as part of the Aleksandar Lifka Award Laureate Homage programme. Summer 1944. In occupied Serbia, during Operation Halyard, members of the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland and the local population organized the rescue of more than 500 American and Allied pilots shot down over enemy territory. From an improvised airfield in the village of Pranjani, and at great personal risk and sacrifice, they carried out the largest single rescue operation of Allied airmen behind enemy lines in aviation history. Inspired by true events, “Heroes of Halyard” is a story of courage, solidarity, and self-sacrifice in wartime, as well as of family divisions, ideological conflicts, and difficult choices that shape human destinies.

As part of the Germany in Focus programme, the Next Generation Shorts Tiger 2025 selection, presented by German Films, will be screened at 5 p.m. in the "Mira Banjac" Hall of the Abazija Cinema in Palić. The programme block includes the short films "Late Summer 91" (Olaf Held), "Monument" (Maksim Avdeev), "Balconies" (Xenia Smirnov), "Future is Panorama" (Muschirf Shekh Zeyn), "Recordari" (Carolina Cruz), "Last Call Blue" (Tillmann Betz), "Pear Garden" (Shadab Shayegan), "Tako Tsubo" (Eva Pedroza, Fanny Sorgo), "Obey, Obey" (Akira Kawasaki), "Silent Night" (Jonathan Schaller) and "Do Something" (Sofija Živković).

In the New Hungarian Film section, “Bolondmese” by Bicskei Zoltán will be screened at the Eurocinema in Subotica at 7 p.m. The film follows the journey of Csacsi, a "village fool" who is banished to the Járás puszta (the great plains) after holding a mirror up to his community and holding onto his childlike innocence in a village obsessed with money. Alongside his unpredictable companion, Kisbolond, he explores the true value of the plains in stark contrast to the prideful, profit-driven mindset of the villagers.

In the Eco Dox programme, two films will be screened at 5 p.m. at the Lifka Art Cinema in Subotica: “Red Wind” (Ljubica Blagojević, Vasilije Bujaković, Filip Marojević), a story about confronting an ancient curse; and “In Cod We Trust” (Guro Saniola Bjerk, Norway), set in Båtsfjord, one of the world's northernmost fishing villages, where cod is more important than God.

In the New European Documentary Film programme, “Traces” by Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk (Ukraine) will be screened at 7 p.m. at the Lifka Art Cinema in Subotica. Despite the deep traces of trauma caused by sexual violence and torture resulting from Russian aggression, Ukrainian women survivors unite to break stigma and silence, transforming their testimonies into a powerful form of resistance.

As part of the guest festival section presented by the Skopje Film Festival, "Black Seed" by Kiril Cenevski will be screened at the Eurocinema at 5 p.m.

The Zsigmond Vilmos programme will feature four films: "Arturia" (Kőváry Dániel, Hungary), "Astronauta" (Giorgio Giampà, Spain), "Barlebas" (Malu Janssen, The Netherlands), and "Mirelit" (Dániel Pálfi, Hungary). The films will be screened in a programme block beginning at 7 p.m. in the "Mira Banjac" Hall of the Abazija Cinema in Palić.

At 8 p.m. at the Abazija Cinema, "Wind, Talk to Me" by Stefan Đorđević, winner of the MIOB New Vision Award, will be screened.

A discussion with Radoš Bajić, recipient of this year's Aleksandar Lifka Award in the category of domestic filmmakers, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Grand Terrace in Palić.

Tickets for the Official Selection programme are priced at 400 dinars, while tickets for the Parallels and Encounters programme cost 300 dinars. Tickets can be purchased starting half an hour before the screening starts.

Admission to all other festival screenings is free!

The European Film Festival Palić is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities, the City of Subotica, the European Union through the Creative Europe MEDIA program, as well as numerous partners and media sponsors.

For more than two decades, Gorki List has been a valued partner of the European Film Festival Palić, serving both as an integral part of its visual identity and as the sponsor of the Gorki List Audience Award, which encourages audiences to engage more deeply with the films presented at the festival.

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