The Budva City Theater does not have the status of a festival of national importance, and in order to become one, a request must first be sent from Budva. In the Ministry of Culture, as "Vijesti" was told, they are ready to consider it, but due to past experiences, they are cautious.
The new city administration, led by the opposition parties, appointed a new management in the public institution "Grad Teatar", which has not yet sent such a request to the department headed by Aleksandar Bogdanović. Years earlier, the same administration received strong objections that the festival, which this year will have its 33rd edition and is one of the most important in Montenegro, did not have adequate state aid, such as the Kotor Art festivals or the Bar TV festival.
"Manifestations and festivals of special importance represent specific models of cultural support and development. This status is established by the Law on Culture, while the detailed conditions of the award are defined by a by-law from 2008," said Aleksandar Dajković, director general of the Directorate for Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture, for "Vijesti".
He emphasized that the granting of status affects many important segments of manifestations and festivals - organizational, management, management, programming, financial...
"These issues are defined in the agreements between the founders and the Ministry of Culture, because they are implemented on a partnership basis. It is known that there were many problems in the implementation of this development measure in the previous period. I will remind you that, due to organizational problems, the Bar International TV Festival has not been realized since 2016, and for the same reasons, Kotor art was left without support in 2017," said Dajković.
According to him, the intention of the Ministry of Culture to grant this status to a number of other festivals in Montenegro with recognizable programming and production quality, in addition to the existing ones, is undeniable.
"However, having learned from the experience of previous years, every new assignment of status, before the final decision, will be reviewed in detail from the perspective of programming and production capacities.
"When it comes to the City Theater, we can express our final position after we receive such an initiative with relevant data from its founder," concluded Dajković.
The Budva festival, despite all the controversies that accompanied it in all previous decades, financial problems, should finally regain the status it once had.
Whether the leaders of the City of Theater will decide to take this step remains to be seen because, despite the benefits, what is at least part of the safe budget for festival manifestations - with which the Budva festival has been dealing for years - cooperation with the Ministry of Culture also entails direct interference in program selection, appointment of selectors, etc.
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