Jean-Claude Van Damme: Welcomed in Serbia Like a Little King
In an interview with Pink, Jean-Claude Van Damme spoke about his reception in Nis, his meeting with President Vucic, and announced he will shoot a new science fiction film in Serbia.
Jean-Claude Van Damme gave an interview to the Pink television network and admitted that Serbia welcomed him like a little king. The Hollywood actor was a guest at the first International Film Festival in Nis in late August, and he has now shared details of his meeting with President Aleksandar Vucic, announced a new film he will shoot in Serbia, and promised he will return next year for Expo.
The festival in Nis opened on August 25, 2026, at the Nis Fortress. Van Damme walked the red carpet alongside Pink owner Zeljko Mitrovic, whom he calls Mister Pink in the interview. The festival program also screened his film The Gardener, a role that, he says, required him to bulk up. Even then he told the audience in Nis that he was preparing for his next role, one set aboard a submarine, for which he will have to slim down, since, as he explained, he cannot be that bulky in such a cramped space. He also praised the technical standard of Belgrade’s film studios, saying he had never seen a better organized production, and urged anyone who wants to make films to do it in Serbia. Fireworks followed his speech, and the festival was officially opened with the premiere of Rados Bajic’s film Guardian of the Icon of Saint George.
Sources disagree on the numbers from the opening night itself. Alongside Van Damme’s interview with Pink, reports state that the red carpet stretched about a kilometer and drew a crowd of roughly 250,000 people. Coverage of the festival opening itself, however, only notes that the carpet ran from the Hotel Ambassador, through King Milan Square and across the Fortress Bridge to the Summer Stage, without citing any figure for attendance.
Before arriving in Nis, the actor had dinner with President Vucic, toured a Belgrade gym and film production studios, and once in Nis also visited sick children. In the Pink interview, he first compared Serbia of about twenty years ago with the country today.
“Oh, it’s a huge difference. It’s like China,” Jean-Claude Van Damme said in the interview with Pink.
The festival in Nis, he says, can stand shoulder to shoulder with the world’s biggest film gatherings.
“You know, I’ve been to a lot of festivals, like Cannes… and here, something was incredible,” the actor said in the interview with Pink, about the festival in Nis.
The hospitality, he added, was second to none.
“I was welcomed here like a little king,” Van Damme said in the interview with Pink.
He also touched on the humanitarian side of his visit, the trip to see sick children in Nis, saying he does the same in every country he visits. He spoke of Zeljko Mitrovic with respect, of his work since he was young and of the share of his fortune that he has directed toward charity, to homes for children without parental care and to children fighting cancer.
Of President Vucic, the actor spoke as a natural, quiet man, with no performance to him. He himself, he says, wore a suit out of respect, while the president was relaxed, in jeans. Vucic is not a politician, he admits, but he believes he has the ability to bring people together and to do something special for what Van Damme called a small yet great country.
He closed with a message for Serbia’s president.
“Serbia, I love you. Mr. President, my respects,” Jean-Claude Van Damme said in the interview with Pink.
The biggest news to come out of the interview, though, was the announcement of a new project. Van Damme confirmed he will shoot his next film in Serbia, a science fiction project built around drones, action, and a love story, both between a man and a woman and between a father and a son. Zeljko Mitrovic confirmed the announcement himself, and the actor added that the script carries a serious action story, not a war of drones.
Van Damme also announced that next year he will be a special guest at Expo in Serbia, and that he will attend, as he put it, in person, with his own face.
