The Belgrade International Theatre Festival (abbr. BITEF) is a theatre festival that takes place every September annually in Belgrade, Serbia. History Founded in 1967, BITEF has continually followed and supported the latest theatre trends. It has become one of the most significant culture festivals of Serbia. During the 1960s, the founders of this festival (Mira Trailović, Jovan Ćirilov and their associates) courageously followed tumultuous events in global theatre teeming with avant-garde explorations. In the 1980s, BITEF showed Belgrade the highest reaches of the art of theatre, thus becoming one of the few festivals comprising both experimental forms and significant classic achievements. In spite of political-economic crisis and embargo, in the final decade of the 20th century, BITEF, thanks to the help of international culture centres, government and non-government organizations, managed to keep abreast with the rest of world, through promotion of new theatre trends and ultimate theatre values. In 2000, BITEF was awarded a Special Prize by the Jury of the Europe Theatre Prize, in Taormina. BITEF was the first international theatre festival to receive an award from Premio Europa per il Teatro. Jury Important part of every edition of the BITEF festival is the jury. Since the beginning, BITEF has a competitive character, which is why the role of the jury is very important. Members of the jury are important theater creators from former Yugoslavia and the rest of the world. List of jury members for each edition of BITEF: 1st BITEF: Predrag Bajčetić, Dejan Čavić, Jovan Ćirilov, Ljubomir Draškić Boro Drašković, Borislav Mihajlović - Mihiz, Slobodan Selenić, Mira Trailović, Mlađa Veselinović 2nd BITEF: Predrag Bajčetić, Dejan Čavić, Jovan Ćirilov, Borislav Mihajlović - Mihiz, Muharem Pervić, Mira Trailović, Milan Žmukić 3rd BITEF: Ljubomir Draškić, Hugo Klajn, Borislav Mihajlović - Mihiz, Borka Pavićević, Miodrag Pavlović, Branko Pleša, Slobodan Selenić, Pavle Stefanović, Mira Trailović, Stojan Čelić, Jovan Ćirilov, Jovan Hristić 4th BITEF: Stanislav Bajić, Predrag Bajčetić, Borislav Mihajlović - Mihiz, Slobodan Selenić, Muharem Pervić, Mira Trailović, Jovan Ćirilov, Jovan Hristić 5th BITEF: Milenko Maričić, Vasko Popa, Zoran Ratković, Pavle Stefanović, Ljuba Tadić, Milorad Vučelić 6th BITEF: Jovan Hristić, Dušan Makavejev, Miodrag Pavlović, Zoran Radmilović, Vladimir Stamenković, Ljuba Tadić, Milorad Vučelić 7th BITEF: Muharem Pervić, Milosav Buca Mirković, Petar Volk, Vladimir Stamenković, Feliks Pašić, Lojze Smasek, Božidar Božović, Žarko Komanin, Ognjen Lakićević, Dejan Penčić-Poljanski 8th BITEF: Predrag Bajčetić, Miroslav Belović, Ljubomir Draškić, Boro Drašković, Tatjana Lukjanova, Ljiljana Krstić, Jelisaveta Sablić, Petar Slovenski,