Due to greatly increased concern regarding the epidemiological situation in Sarajevo, and record cases of COVID-19 infection in the city in the past several days, the Sarajevo Film Festival have made the decision to conduct the 2020 edition of all festival events entirely online from 14 to 21 August.
The world premiere of FOCUS, GRANDMA, the most recent film by Bosnian director Pjer Žalica, opens the programme of the Sarajevo Film Festival. The film will be available for viewing worldwide, at ondemand.sff.ba – the Sarajevo Film Festival’s online platform.
Ondemand.sff.ba is the central hub for all the film screenings, programmes and events of this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival – not just for local audiences but also for film lovers across the region and around the world. Ondemand.sff.ba is a VOD platform that allows users to subscribe to the entire festival programme for seven days, or select individual titles and content. Ondemand.sff.ba was developed in cooperation with Festival Scope and Shift72 Streaming Services, a leading on-demand content streaming company from New Zealand.
Ondemand.sff.ba will feature recent regional and world cinema titles including world and international premieres. By registering on ondemand.sff.ba, viewers will access films according to regional and territorial availability.
Users of ondemand.sff.ba may also access other festival content, including exclusive masterclasses with renowned filmmakers across the world. The Sarajevo Film Festival Masterclass Programme is organised in cooperation with Variety and will be available worldwide via the Variety Streaming Room.
As previously announced, CineLink Industry Days will be held online from 15 to 20 August 2020. As with the rest of the festival events, there will be no onsite CineLink elements. Detailed information about this year’s industry programme will be available at cinelinkindustrydays.com. Talks on the latest industry trends with more than 40 film professionals from around the globe will be available on ondemand.sff.ba under CineLink Talks. The 10 hot topics of discussion will be debated online, in cooperation with the Documentary Campus and Screen International.
A total of 49 films will compete for the Heart of Sarajevo awards at the 26th Sarajevo Film Festival. The Festival’s four competition sections – for feature, documentary, short and student film – will feature 29 world, 6 international, 2 european, 11 regional and 1 Bosnian-Herzegovinian premieres.
This year, the Sarajevo Film Festival Selection team lead by Creative Director Izeta Građević has seen 750 films submitted for the Festival, including 130 feature fiction films, 220 documentary, 250 short and 150 student titles.
Elma Tataragić, selector of the Competition Programme – Feature Film picked eight titles. The selection features four world premieres, one european premier and three regional premieres.
Rada Šešić, selector of the Competition Programme – Documentary Film picked 16 titles. The selection features eight world premieres, two international premier, one European, four regional premieres and one Bosnian-Herzegovinian premieres.
Ten titles selected by Elma Tataragić will be screened in the Competition Programme – Short Film. The selection features seven world, one international and two regional premieres.
Asja Krsmanović, selector of the Competition Programme – Student Film picked 15 titles. The selection features ten world premieres, three international and two regional premieres.
The programme is open for films and filmmakers from Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbejan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.
