Nitrate Film Festival which takes place in Belgrade and is organised by the Yugoslav Film Archive, is among few festivals of its kind in the world. It is a festival of silver nitrate flammable tape. The Festival of Nitrate Film is ranked in the top three archival festivals in the world and shows films from the rich collection of the Museum of Yugoslav Film Archive and the newly found movies from national and foreign archives. The films are kept in bunkers outside the city. 

This year the Nitrate Film Festival starts on June 6 and is having its 15th edition. Among the films that will be screened are two Greek films. The first one is The Wizzard of Athens (1931) by Achilleas Mandras. The movie started production in 1922 with the title The Gypsy of Athens but was finally finished in 1931 with footage that Mandras filmed in various locations in Athens. What needs to be mentioned is that the copy that was released had handpainted frames by students of the Fine Arts School. 

The second film film that will be screened at the 15th Nitrate Film Festival is The Adventures of Villar (1924), directed by Joseph Hepp. The Adventures of Villar is the oldest feature film that was saved and restored by the Greek Film Archive. The film is the second part of a comedy in two acts that Joseph Hepp filmed with the actor Nickolaos Sfakianos. Joseph Hepp made many films in Greece and in 1963 Aglaia Mitropoulou, the founder of the Greek Film Archive, conviced him to donate his large collection of greek films and news footage. The first attempt to restore the film started in 1972 but was finally completed in 1991.

The 15th Nitrate Film Festival will be concluded on June 14 and it shocase more than 40 rare films from around the world. Few of them are David Koperfild (1911) by George O. Nicholls, Iz Kerempuhova Dnevinka (1950) by Bogdan Maracic and O Noapte Furtunoasa (1943) by Jean Georgescu.

The complete program can be found here