PROFESSIONAL JURY

LJUBICA BELJANSKI-RISTIĆ

Born in Bolzano, Italy. She lived and finished school in Pula, Croatia. She graduated in Yugoslav literature and Serbo-Croatian language at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade. Through creative play, creative and artistic education and training, drama and theatre in education, participatory theatre, art for social changes and development of the concept of polyphonic drama and theatre she does innovative and participatory drama for, with and from children and youth. As the editor of the drama programme at the Culture Centre “Stari grad” in Belgrade (now “Parobrod”/Culture Institution “Stari grad”) she has been managing the Children’s Drama Studio “Škozorište” since 1977. Since 1981, when the Studio of creative education “Školigrica” was founded, she has been gathering and supporting young experts and artists in education through practice and practical research projects. From this, in 1999, basis was created for establishing the Centre for Drama in Education and Art (CEDEUM), as a national centre of the International Association for Drama/Theatre and Education (IDEA). She heads national and participates in international projects, leads numerous seminars and workshops for education of teachers and artists, and is active in reforms in education, strategy on education and strategy on culture in the area of intersectoral cooperation between culture and education, particularly in drama and theatre in the field of art. She set the concept for Bitef Polyphony in 2000 by developing editorial teamwork and a specific “polyphonic concept” of this increasingly important supporting programme of the Belgrade International Theatre Festival (Bitef) of new theatrical tendencies. She is one of the founders and now an honorary member of ASSITEJ Serbia. Since 2014 she has been a consultant in the research team for creating a database of cultural offers for children and youth at the Serbian Institute for Cultural Development Research for the project “Cultural Participation and Cultural Heritage”. She has received significant national and international awards and acknowledgments for her contribution in the field of culture and education, especially in the field of drama and theatre for children and youth.

JOVAN CARAN

He was an actor at the puppet theatre in Zrenjanin from 1974.
He has played in almost all puppet shows. He has received around 30 awards from various festivals – for acting, puppet design, design, direction, puppet script. He is author of various scripts for puppet theatre, 15 of which have been performed in different theatres. So far, he has directed about 50 plays in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He managed a drama studio from which a young generation of actors-puppeteers came. He edited and managed the most comprehensive website about puppetry in Serbia “DNK-lutkarstva”, which contained technical illustrations, interviews and a database of almost all texts about puppetry in Serbian language. Now he writes new scripts for puppet shows, as well as for magazines dedicated to puppetry. Recently a book of his titled “Bajkologija za lutkare” (Fairytale-logy for puppeteers) has been published. He is also preparing a glossary of puppetry under the title “Turistički vodič kroz svet bajke” (Tour guide through the world of fairytales). He has been popularizing the art of puppetry through various workshops. He has been creating and constructing puppets in his own workshop.
When it comes to formal education, he has come to the very end of organization studies programme at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, while he learned the craft in “Dadovo” – Belgrade, theatre “Dečji bič” at “Dom omladine” in Zrenjanin, drama studio of Jovan Bata Putnik, and later at the studio of prof. Dragan Jović.

SMILJANA MARINKOVIĆ

Born in Bačka Palanka on 9th September 1988. She graduated from the Academy of Art at the University in Banja Luka in 2014, in class of prof. Elena Trepetova Kostić. From 2015 to 2018 she worked as an assistant for course “Acting” at the Academy of Art in Banja Luka. Since 2018 she has been a member of the acting ensemble of the National Theatre of the Republic of Srpska, while as was also an associate at the Children’s Theatre of the Republic of Srpska, City Theatre “Jazavac”, Nevid Teatar, Students’ Theatre, Gradiška City Theatre… Since 2020 she has been giving acting classes at the School of Acting and Speech at the Studio “Jazavac”, working with children 9 to 12 years old. Her mother, Nada Marinković, who is now director of the preschool institution “Različak”, is one of the founders of the Festival of Ecological Theatre for Children. Through various functions, Smiljana has been with FEP from its inception. In 2016, at the 22nd Festival of Ecological Theatre for Children and Youth she won the award for the best play in the children’s and professional jury’s opinion for the play “Pustolovine Boleta Komete” (Adventures of Bole Kometa) by Nevid Teatar from Banja Luka, where she plays the role of Bole Kometa. She lives and works in Banja Luka. She is mother to a four-year-old girl Lenka.