Jovan Ćirilov

Jovan Ćirilov (Kikinda, 1931.) graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 1955.

He has authored theatre plays, screenplays (films shown in Venice, Moscow and Pula), novels, several books of poetry, essays in theatrology, memory books, drama anthologies (contemporary Serbian plays in English, British and American contemporary plays, anthology of the shortest plays in the world) and dictionaries. he has translated plays by Christopher Fry, Bertold Brecht, Jean Gene, Tom Stoppard, Sam Shepard, David Mamet, Patrick Marber and musical Hair. He is the author of a column in NIN, Word of the Week (since 1986), two columns a week in daily paper Blic (Pozorištarije and The Hands in Pockets) and theatre diaries in magazine Ludus.

He was at the head of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre from 1985 to 1999, and before that he had worked as a dramaturge in that theatre, as well as in Atelje 212 from 1967 to 1985.
He has been artistic director and selector of Bitef since its foundation in 1967 until today.

From 2001 to 2007 he was the president of Yugoslav national Commission and later Serbian National Commission for UNESCO.

He has awarded the French title Chevalier of Art and Literature in 1992.