Artistic Director

Film Distribution and Cinema Programming

His professional career began in 1988 at Beograd Film (then Avala-Pro Film) as a repertoire consultant, and soon after as program editor.

• YU Film Pool (1989): He was one of the initiators and founders of this historic project, which, in cooperation with colleagues from Zagreb and Novi Sad, succeeded in bringing all the major Hollywood studios into the market of then-Yugoslavia.
• Tuck and TV Pink: From 1996 to 2006, he worked at Tuck, the country’s largest distribution company, first as program editor and later as general director. During this period, in 1996, he launched the extremely popular and long-running film series “Cinemania.” Since February 2006, he has held the position of film program editor at Television Pink, a role he still holds today.

History with FEST and Selection Work

Dragan Jeličić’s connection to FEST spans more than four decades across various key roles:

• Collaboration with Nebojša Đukelić: From 1984, he was a permanent collaborator with Đukelić on RTS’s cult programs “Moving Pictures” and “FEST Chronicle,” and from 1990 to 1992 served as the festival’s assistant selector.
• Selection and Festival Council: In the late 1990s (1998–2000), he served as FEST’s selector (alongside Miroljub Vučković) and as a member of the Festival Council. He was also a member of the FEST Board from 2018 to 2022, making him one of the longest-serving figures in the festival’s history.
• Other festivals: Besides FEST, he was a selector for the Palić Film Festival (1997–2001), founder and program director of the Serbian Film Festival in Novi Sad (2007), selector for the Valter Fest in Mladenovac (2018–2024), and selector for the main competition program at the Ravno Selo Film Festival (2021–2025).

Media, Film Criticism, and Publishing

He has been active in film criticism since 1982. His writings and analyses have appeared in cult radio programs (Indeks 202) and nearly every major print outlet in the region (Student, Borba, NIN, Vreme, Politika, Kinoteka, Filmograf, Ritam, and others).

• Together with Momčilo Rajin and Dragan Ambrozić, he co-founded the influential film section of Ritam magazine in 1989.
• With Nebojša Pajkić, he edited the cult anthology on New Hollywood titled “Light in the Dark” (1991), which went through three sold-out editions.
• He edited the prestigious ARS CINEMA series for the Clio publishing house.
• He co-authored (with Bogdan Zlatić) the definitive monograph on the great Serbian director Jovan Živanović, titled “A Beehive in a Wasp’s Nest” (2020).

Innovation in Television and Digital Platforms

Jeličić has been a pioneer in the domestic market when it comes to launching specialized film channels and modern platforms:

• 2005. He launched Sinemanija, the country’s first specialized film cable channel.
• 2013. As part of Pink’s cable platform, he created an entire lineup of genre film channels (Pink Classic, Pink Western, Pink World Cinema, Pink Action, Pink Horror…).
• 2021. He was one of the initiators behind the launch of the country’s first domestic SVOD platform, “Apolon,” and subsequently its film production arm.
• 2023. He launched a unique package of 4 cable channels devoted exclusively to European cinema, under the shared name Euro Cinema.

Teaching and Institutional Involvement

As an expert in film business and film history, he has lectured and led seminars at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU), the Academy of Arts in Belgrade, and numerous other institutions of higher education in the country and the region. He is one of the founders of the Belgrade Society of Film Critics (DFKB), the Association of Film Distributors of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Anti-Piracy Association (JAPA), and served two terms as a member of the first Managing Board of the Film Center of Serbia (FCS).

During the war years of the 1990s, he lived temporarily in Prague, where together with director Nenad Ognjenović he founded the production house Fine Production, and upon returning to Belgrade in 1995 opened Imago Records, the country’s first specialized store for American alternative rock music.