The 11th Belgrade International Film Festival for and by people with disabilities - Bosifest is officially opened

20. October 2020.

Last night, at the Yugoslav Film Archive, the 11th BOSIFEST was officially opened.

The audience was addressed by the Festival’s Director - Darko Ivić, Marjan Vujović – manager of the Archive’s Museum and Festival’s Selector – Igor Toholj.

The Festival was opened by the Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, Mr. Zoran Đorđević.

The Minister emphasized the importance of this festival, as it promotes life of people with disabilities and challenges they are facing, that all of us who are not in direct contact with them are not familiar with. He also said that he will try and contact national televisions on behalf of the Ministry and ask them to include these films into their programming lineup.

Darko Ivić said

I am very proud of the festival that we managed to organize this year under such specific conditions, amidst of a Covid-19 pandemic and maintain its continuity. Due to a restricted number of people in the audience, to many interested schools, especially people with disabilities who are, for safety measures, not able to watch the films from the auditorium, we decided to offer the possibility of watching these films via video link.

Director expressed his gratitude for the support of the authorised institutions, as the Festival is being sponsored by the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy and the Ministry of Culture and Information.

Marjan Vujović expressed his pleasure of being the host of BOSIFEST for the second year now. He mentioned difficult circumstances of the Festival

amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and encouraged the audience to attentively watch the films, as they will learn a lot about a reality they haven’t had opportunity to consider.

The Selector Igor Toholj said:

Films that will be presented deserve to be in this selection due to their cinematic, aesthetic, ideological and humanistic values.

The opening ceremony of the 11th Bosifest was led by the actress Milica Zarić, accompanied with translation into sign and English language.

Before the beginning of the film, the auditorium was able to watch a link sent by the main character and his parents, where they greeted the Belgrade audience.

Immediately after the opening ceremony, the exquisite documentary “Once upon a boy“ directed by Uri Levi, was presented.

Ron is intelligent, charming and full of life, but every day, his movements are increasingly limited by cerebral palsy. This, while he watches his twin run and play soccer with their brother. The film follows this remarkable famil's struggles as the parents do everything in their power to raise three children who are happy with their lot, despite the unfathomable gap between them. A daring trip

to the US to undergo a complex surgery to halt the progress of the disease reveals different approaches to life as well as the incredible power to live with one’s fate.

During this year’s BOSIFEST, from 19 - 21 of October, the audience will be able to watch 10 films chosen by the Selector Igor Toholj

This year's Bosifest jury consists of: Ognjen Glavonić, our renown Director, Dejan Dabić, Director of Film Festival in Niš and film critic, publicist, director of the March Festival of documentary films and Director Tanja Brzaković.

The jury will be giving out following awards: The Grand Prix for the best film, the award for the best director, the award for the best screenplay, as well as special awards.

This year's accompanying program is a workshop entitled “Interactive film“ that will last all three days of the Festival, beginning at 11am.

Bosifest is a unique film festival in our country, as well as in the world, since the whole program is devoted to the life of people with disabilities, and the films presented here are relevant and outstanding achievements of documentary genre.

With the award ceremony, the 12th Belgrade International Film Festival of people with disabilities came to an end

20. October 2021.

The Grand Prix of the 12th Bosifest went to the documentary film "A HOUSE / UNE MAISON" by the French director Judith Auffray

A house take us to a very special place in a quite unusual way, and then focuses on the housemates - it allows us to meet individual characters as they go about their daily routine.