Wissenswertes

In 1993, he challenged Vojislav Seselj, leader of Serbia's ultranationalist movement, to a duel. He suggested that it should be in the heart of Belgrade, at high noon (!), with any weapon Mr. Seselj chooses. Vojislav Seselj refused this offer saying that he "didn't want to be accused of a murder of an artist".

During the 1995 Belgrade International Film Festival Kusturica knocked down Nebojsa Pajkic, the leader of the New Serbian Right movement. Symbolically enough, Mrs. Pajkic tried to protect her husband by hitting Kusturica with a small bag, a present from Radovan Karadzic, the leader of Bosnian Serbs.

Has not been to Sarajevo, his birthplace, since 1992.

In May of 2005, Kusturica was baptized in a Serbian Orthodox church, taking up the Serbian Christian name Nemanja. It was a very personal gesture to re-affirm his Serbian roots.

Twice winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Papa ist auf Dienstreise (1985) and Underground (1995). The other directors to have won the Palme twice are: Francis Ford Coppola [Der Dialog (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979)], Alf Sjöberg [Iris och löjtnantshjärta (1946) and Fräulein Julie (1951)], Shôhei Imamura [Die Ballade von Narayama (1983) and Der Aal (1997)], Bille August [Pelle - Der Eroberer (1987) and Die besten Absichten (1992)], Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne [Rosetta (1999) and Das Kind (2005)], Michael Haneke [Das weiße Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009) and Liebe (2012)], Ken Loach [The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) and Ich, Daniel Blake (2016)] and Ruben Östlund [The Square (2017) and Triangle of Sadness (2022)].

President of the jury at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

Often stays in Douains, Eure, France.

Since 1986 he has played bass guitar in "Zabranjeno Pusenje" (meaning Smoking Forbidden, or no smoking) a rock band from his hometown Sarajevo. In 1992 the lead singer of the band, Nele Karajlic, moved to Belgrade. In 1997 Kusturica and Karajlic started a new "faction" of the band called "The No Smoking Orchestra". The rest of the original band members stayed in Sarajevo and continued their own faction of the band. Super 8 Stories (2001) is a documentary about "No Smoking".

Richard Attenborough wanted him for Chaplin and Francis Ford Coppola wanted him for Dracula.

Often works with actors Slavko Stimac and Predrag 'Miki' Manojlovic.

Has two children, Stribor and Dunja.

Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993.

Filming in Serbia with the director Marie-Eve Signeyrole for the short film "Alice au pays s'émerveille" starring Caroline Frossard, Sophie Le Tellier and Christian Mullot until the end of the month. (März 2009)

Father of Stribor Kusturica.

Before fleeing Sarajevo by Moslem war, he earned a magistrate in Architecture.