A seasoned and versed film programme editor, and a former curator of FEST, Dragan Jeličić told FNE: „FEST 2026 will be held two and a half years after the end of the last edition. Thus, it is a kind of restart, a new beginning. Our duty is to show the best that world cinema has to offer at the moment, but also to remind us of the earliest releases from the beginning of the 70s, the so-called golden age. It will therefore be a combination of innovation and nostalgia, both in terms of the selection of films and the selection of guests. It's trite to say there's something for everyone, but our goal is that the generations who remember the first FEST, as well as the youngest one, whose parents weren't born that far back in 1971, will gather together at the same place. Let me remind you that, from the first FEST to today, the same amount of time has passed as from WW1 to the same 1971. An entire eternity... and enduring the course of that everything has been recorded on film“.

The gap of two and a half years has occurred due to several strategic festival concept approaches having been considered and to the ongoing social events happening in Serbia over this period.

On 25 - 26 February 2026, a FEST Intro held in Sava Center's Blue Hall (FEST’s most popular venue), screened four international films: Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Olivier Assayas’ The Wizzard of the Kremlin, and Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon.

FEST is organised by the Center of Belgrade Festivals (CEBEF) with support from the Culture Secretariat of the City of Belgrade.