The Festival slogan `The world is in the view of the observer`points out to the role of cinema audiences in the reception of the ethnographic films. This 14 to 18 October, the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade organized the XIX International Festival of Ethnological Film. The program featured 50 films from 35 countries and presented a new award for the best student film for the first time. The Festival also undertook the survey of the profiles and attitudes of its audiences, in close collaboration with colleagues from the departments of sociology and anthropology at the Belgrade University. Another prize also awarded for the first time at the Festival was the special recognition for the best film according to the votes of the audience.

On October 9, 2006 a group of delegates of the parliament of the European Council submitted a proposal for a convention on the protection of old & traditional crafts. This convention was designed by a group of students from the Faculty of Law at The University of Belgrade,all members of an expert committee for European law comprised of the most successful students interested in the legal aspects of integration process to EU.

It was the first time in the history of the European Council that a group of students proposed such an initiative. Moreover, those students belong to a country that only in the past few years even became a member of this Council.

Old and traditional crafts and their products are not only the essential part of the overall spiritual and cultural heritage of each nation, but also of Europe as a whole and all of humanity. The unity of Europe demands that this heritage be treated as the common European heritage that must be recognised in the territory of the whole Europe, while preserving and cultivating the specificity of each nation as an important and unique part of the European cultural mosaic. Old and traditional crafts have exceptional cultural and often artistic value and represent an important testimony to the manners of living, customs, needs, views and spirituality of a nation and the cultural interactions between different nation.

It is recognised that the progress of science and technology, in particular industrial development, with ever-increasing opportunities for cheap, fast and large-scale production, renders old and traditional crafts insufficiently profitable and thus not attractive enough as a profession. As a result, many of these crafts have disappeared or are about to disappear.

Every inhabitant of Europe owes existence to the hard work and skills of his or her ancestors who maintained family by practicing crafts that are now considered to be old and traditional, and are unfortunately endangered. Until a century ago life in Europe was organized around old and traditional crafts. Therefore, their protection is more than a simple cultural need. It is our debt to our closest ancestors.

(Excerpts from the Draft submitted by Serbian students of law from the Belgrade University).

Since the supplemented draft applies in the great measure to the protection of intangible cultural heritage (such as knowledge, skills, technologies used in craftsmanship) it is entirely in accordance with European convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001325/132540e.pdf) adopted in 2003 by UNESCO. The Republic of Serbia ratified this convention recently, in May 2010.

However, the above mentioned draft has not been adopted by the European Council to date. The member states have not shown the political will to adopt the convention and relevant binding documents in the field of protection of cultural heritage. Moreover, Serbian representatives did not attend the discussion and could therefore not support it at the Parliament of the European Council in 2006.

The promotion of the new book `Old Crafts in Serbia` is the first phase in the implementation of a project called the Support to Safeguarding and Fostering of Old Crafts in the Republic of Serbia led by the Ministry of Commerce of Serbia. Primary contributors are from the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade. This publication features a detailed study of the most well-known crafts in Serbia, as well as the trends concerning their safeguarding in the era of new technologies and media.