The formal opening ceremony of Serbian Film Days, jointly organized by our Embassy in Croatia, Croatian Film Association, Yugoslav Film Archive, Film Center of Serbia, Center of the Film and the Serb National Council, took place on 3 April at the cinema Tuskanac in Zagreb. The Serbian Orthodox Church has also helped the project. Ms. Agar Pata of the Croatian Film Association contributed to this initiative and throughout the cooperation previously maintained with the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Zagreb by facilitating and making this cultural event possible.

The cult movie "Marathon Men Running Victory Lap", directed by Slobodan Sijan, began the Serbian film retrospective attended by numerous audiences, representatives of the Diplomatic Corps (RF, Greece, Turkey, South Korea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Chile) Metropolitan Porfirio, President of the Serb National Council M. Pupovac, Sabor representative B. Milosevic of the Independent Democratic Serb Party  (SDSS), Deputy Mayor of Zagreb V. Kusin, Head of the Zagreb Department of Culture K. Milkovic, representative of the Serb minority on the Zagreb City Council B. Srdic Vule, President of the Council for National Minorities of R. Croatia A. Tolnauer, as well as many film lovers.

Ambassador Mira Nikolic, in officially inaugurating the retrospective, recalled that most of the selected films had been declared Serbia's cultural heritage of great and exceptional importance thanks to the Yugoslav Film Archive and she presented a brief history of Serbian cinematography since its beginnings in the early twentieth century, the achievements from the 60's to the 90's, including the latest award-winning films. She was delighted in particular that directors of more recent films, who arrived to Zagreb as guests, would be in attendance.

Serbian Film Days, 3 to 7 April, will show the Serbian cinematography from its early beginnings, from its first found film on tape "Words and Deeds of the Immortal Leader Karadjordje" of 1911 to the recent, award-winning movies.

In his opening remarks, Director of the Yugoslav Film Archive Jugoslav Pantelic expressed pleasure at the organization of such an event, particularly bearing in mind that Zagreb audiences had no opportunity to see most of the recent films, except at festivals. He said that the idea behind the retrospective was to present to Zagreb audiences the jewels of Serbian and Yugoslav film industry made before WWII, those belonging to the golden age of SFRY cinematography and films from more recent Serbian production. Miroljub Vuckovic, speaking on behalf of the Film Center of Serbia, thanked the audiences for their interest in the event.

The screening of "The Marathon Men" was followed by an interview with its Director Slobodan Sijan, recollecting his friend, the recently deceased director Lazar Stojanovic, whose film "Plastic Jesus" was shown later that day.

On the occasion of opening Serbian Film Days in Zagreb, a cocktail reception was held in between two film screenings.