The Sarajevo Film Festival is the premier and largest film festival in Southeast Europe,[1][2] and is one of the largest film festivals in Europe. It was founded in Sarajevo in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War, and brings international and local celebrities to Sarajevo every year. It is held in August and showcases an extensive variety of feature and short films from around the world. The current director of the festival is Jovan Marjanović.
The Sarajevo Film Festival red carpet, 24 July 2011
In October 1993, a ten-day Sarajevo International Film Festival was held, directed by Haris Pašović of MESS. The success of this event, combined with the legacy of Mirsad Purivatra's and Izeta Građević's wartime film screenings from 1992, led to the establishment of an annual festival.[3]
The first Sarajevo Film Festival was held from 25 October to 5 November 1995. At that time, the siege of Sarajevo was still going on and attendance projections were very low. However, a surprising 15,000 people came to see the films, of which there were 37 from 15 different countries. The festival grew at a remarkable pace, now being the most prominent film festival in Southeast Europe, attracting more than 100,000 people annually on all programs and screening hundreds of films from 60 countries.[4]
By 2001, the European Film Association made the Sarajevo Film Festival one of the eleven festivals that could nominate a film for the award of "Europe's Best Short Film". The 2001 winner of the Sarajevo Film Festival, Danis Tanović's No Man's Land, went on to win an Oscar in the United States. In 2004, the Best Movie Award was named the "Heart of Sarajevo".
Beginning with the 13th Sarajevo Film Festival in 2007 and in cooperation with the Berlin International Film Festival and Berlinale Talent Campus, the Sarajevo Talent Campus has been added to the festival. In 2014, the Sarajevo Talent Campus got renamed to "Talents Sarajevo". Talents Sarajevo is an educational and creative platform for up and coming young film professionals, and has eventually come to be revered as the most prestigious film training event in the region.
The festival also features CineLink, a year-long project development program resulting in an annual co-production market during the festival dates. The CineLink Market each year presents about 10 finest regional projects for feature-length fiction films, also offering festival guests a special opportunity to meet with the assembled regional industry, with emphasis on young filmmakers, producers and directors presenting their latest projects, productions and works in progress, with highlights of the regional production presented to international distributors, TV-buyers and festival programmers, making CineLink the most important international market place for new features from Southeast Europe.
The 2023 Sarajevo Film Festival
The first edition of CineLink, which was part of the 9th Sarajevo Film Festival, was held in 2003. Of the 91 entries from across the region, a three-member jury, Philippe Bober, Behrooz Hashemian and Čedomir Kolar, producers whose films have won awards at all the major international film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Rotterdam and Berlin, chose six winning films, and the winners were: The Abandoned - Zlatko Topčić, Bosnian Pot - Vedran Fajković, Slowly - Nikola Mišić, Totally Personal - Nedžad Begović, Roses for Tosca - Branko Đurić, Simona Stražisar and Last Day - Namik Kabil.[5][6][7][8][9]
In 2019, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the Sarajevo Film Festival the status of the Academy Award qualifying film festival in the Short Film category. Short films that win the Heart of Sarajevo Award and the nomination for the European Film Academy (EFA) short film award at the Sarajevo Film Festival will be eligible for consideration in the Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film category of the Academy Awards without the standard theatrical run, provided that they otherwise comply with the Academy rules.[10]
Talents Sarajevo is a program launched in 2007, under the name Sarajevo Talent Campus, in co-operation with the Berlin International Film Festival and the Berlinale Talent Campus. Talents Sarajevo is an educational and networking platform for emerging film talents from Southeast Europe (Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia and Turkey). Each year, more than two hundred applications are received, and only eighty are carefully chosen to attend a six-day training led by some of the most prominent film professionals in the world. In addition to meeting other filmmakers and film professionals, young filmmakers are introduced to the work of established film professionals, informed about current trends and issues in the industry, and introduced to the international filmmaking community.
Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo Canton, East Sarajevo and nearby municipalities is home to 555,210 inhabitants. Located within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of the Balkans, a region of Southeastern Europe.
Abdulah Sidran, often referred to by his hypocoristic nickname Avdo, was a Bosnian poet and screenwriter. He is considered to be one of the most influential writers in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia.
Fudbalski klub Željezničar Sarajevo, commonly referred to as Željo, is a professional football club, based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The name Željezničar means "railway worker", originating from their establishment by a group of railway workers in 1921. Throughout its history, the club has cultivated a reputation for producing talented home-grown players through its youth school.
Danis Tanović is a Bosnian film director and screenwriter. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for the Golden Bear and the Palme d'Or.
Jasmila Žbanić is a Bosnian film director, screenwriter and producer. She has received numerous accolades, including nominations for the Academy Award and two BAFTA Awards. Žbanić has also won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and has been nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Remake is a 2003 Bosnian war film directed by Dino Mustafić, and produced by Enes Cviko and Martine de Clermont-Tonnerre. The film is a Turkish-French co-production.
Tolerantia (2008) is a 6 minute short animated film. It is the first 3D animated short film produced in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was directed and produced by Ivan Ramadan independently. The film is about intolerance between people.
Zlatko Topčić is a Bosnian screenwriter, playwright and novelist. He has written a number of films, including: Remake, The Abandoned, Miracle in Bosnia; theater plays: Time Out, I Don't Like Mondays, Refugees; novels: The Final Word, Dagmar, June 28, 1914.
The Abandoned is a 2010 Bosnian drama film directed by Adis Bakrač, produced by Almir Šahinović and Marie-Anne Coste. The film is a Croatian-French co-production. It stars Mira Furlan, Tony Grga, Mirsad Tuka, Mirela Lambić, Dragan Marinković, Meto Jovanovski, Zijah Sokolović, and was written by Zlatko Topčić. His script caught the attention of producers after winning the 2003 CineLink Screenwriting Competition.
The Heart of Sarajevo is the highest prize awarded in all the competition categories at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Maja Milinković is a Bosnian fado singer and songwriter, born in Sarajevo, the capital of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Human Rights Award (Sarajevo Film Festival) is an award given at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The award is given for the best film from the competition documentary program dealing with the subject of human rights. It was first awarded in 2004, at the 10th edition of festival, and has since become a traditional award. The Human Rights Award is provided by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
The Sarajevo Youth Film Festival, also known as OFF Sarajevo, is an annual film festival held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is held in September and showcases an extensive variety of feature, animated and short films from around the world. The main focus of the festival is on promoting young film directors and producers, student films and youth-themed films. OFF Sarajevo is considered to be one of the premium student film festivals in the Balkans.
The VIVA Film Festival is an annual documentary and short film festival that is based in Sarajevo and in 19 cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The festival showcases international films with ecological,natural hereligious,touristic themes, as well as youth-made films. It was established by an international team of film professionals, environmentalists, diplomats, religious leaders and scholars that includes former US Vice President Al Gore, Bosnian archeologist Semir Osmanagić and others, with the purpose of promoting inter-religious dialogue, the preservation of the environment and ecotourism.
The Pravo Ljudski Film Festival is an annual human rights documentary film festival held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The name translates to Totally Human. It was established in 2006 with the goal of promoting socially engaged non-fictional audiovisual projects, dedicated to the development of critical spectatorship through socially engaged documentaries and independent art cinema. It is held for two weeks in November. The festival has developed an independent non-profit civic association under the same name. It is the largest festival of its kind in Southeastern Europe.
The Sarajevo International Guitar Festival is an international multi-day classical guitar music festival which annually takes place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was established in 2011 and is the only festival of its kind in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 2017 it is a full-member of EuroStrings. The festival has hosted numerous international names such as Margarita Escarpa, Rovshan Mamedkuliev, Sérgio Assad, Juanjo Domínguez, Le Trio Joubran, Roland Dyens, Dušan Bogdanović, Yorgos Foudoulis, Petar Čulić, Hubert Käppel, Pablo Márquez and others.
Ena Sendijarević is an Amsterdam-based Bosnian filmmaker and screenwriter. She is best known for her short film Import (2016) and her debut feature Take Me Somewhere Nice (2019). The latter was part of the Cannes ACID programme at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and won the Heart of Sarajevo award for Best Feature Film at the 2019 Sarajevo Film Festival.
Quo Vadis, Aida? is a 2020 internationally co-produced war drama film written, produced and directed by Jasmila Žbanić. An international co-production of twelve production companies, the film was shown in the main competition section of the 77th Venice International Film Festival.
Excursion is a 2023 drama film written and directed by Una Gunjak. Starring Asja Zara Lagumdžija, Nađa Spaho, Maja Izetbegović, Mediha Musliović, Izudin Bajrović and Muhamed Hadžović. It was selected as the Bosnian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards. It is a co-production between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, France, Norway and Qatar.
Safe Place is a 2022 Croatian family drama film written and directed by Juraj Lerotić as his debut. The film stars Juraj Lerotić as Bruno, Goran Marković as Damir and Snježana Sinovčić Šiškov as Mother.
↑ Turan, Kenneth. Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made; pp. 97, 105. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 2002.
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