A total of 54 films will compete for the Heart of Sarajevo awards at the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival, and three films will be shown out of competiton. The Festival’s four competition sections – for feature, documentary, short and student film – will feature 19 world, 9 international, 3 European, 21 regional and 3 national premieres.
“Presenting these 57 premieres, alongside approximately 15 more films in the In Focus and Open Air programs that are yet to be announced, makes the Sarajevo Film Festival once again the place where the broadest audience, as well as film professionals and critics, can gain the most accurate image of film art in Southeast Europe, Ukraine, and the South Caucasus today. These regions are simultaneously in the spotlight and on the margins of global attention, and the Festival provides a unique opportunity for a deeper understanding of all nuances of experience from the geopolitical and artistic margins that are often missing in forming a complex picture of the present day. In the past 20 years since its inception, the Heart of Sarajevo has truly become a valuable film award amplifying voices from this region and bringing them closer to the global audience, and we believe it will be the same this time,” said Jovan Marjanović, Director of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
This year, the Sarajevo Film Festival Programmers team led by Creative Director Izeta Građević, has seen 940 films submitted for the Festival, including 190 feature fiction films, 280 documentary, 470 short and student titles.
“Selection of the Competition Programmes for this year’s jubilee edition of the Festival has been done in accordance with the mission we set for ourselves as a festival when it was launched. These selections are dedicated to new authors, original stories, and concepts. In our Competition Arena, following our established practice of embracing creative risk, alongside films and authors whose value has been recognized this year by major world film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, we have also made space for several new titles, several world premieres that we believe rightfully belong in such a selection. As is known, for our Competition Programmes, we select films from the broad Southeast European region characterized by diverse film practices and traditions, diversity in themes, cinematic language, and creative affinities. Thanks to this richness of diversity, it can be said that our Competition Programmes this year once again represent the vast world of cinema in a small scale,” said Izeta Građević, the Creative Director of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Elma Tataragić, programmer of the Competition Programme – Feature Film, will present 9 titles. The selection in the competition programme features one world premiere, one European and six regional premieres. One film out of competition will have its world premiere as a gala screening.
„This year’s Competition selection is both an invitation and an instruction, it is a possibility and a restriction, a promise and a threat, a safe place and a challenge. All the filmmakers in the eight films in competition and one film out of competition express various concerns about the world today, yesterday and tomorrow. The selection is a polyphony of different and diverse perspectives on war, on history, on love, on betrayal, on fragile future and human everlasting need for belonging. With this selection, we are inviting you to reflect on the ambivalence of our present world which seem more fragile than ever before“, said Tataragić.
Rada Šešić, programmer of the Competition Programme – Documentary Film, picked 21 films for the programme. Nineteen films are competing for awards: 3 will have their world premieres, 5 their international premieres, 1 its European premiere, 8 their regional premieres, and 2 their Bosnian and Herzegovinian premieres in Sarajevo. Two films will be shown out of competition: one will have its world premiere, and one its Bosnian and Herzegovinian premiere.
“This year’s selection can be described as ‘fishing in the river of time’. This method, creatively applied in a large number of chosen films, offers a unique authorial perspective on the passage of time, whether through exceptional archival material or refined cinematic observation. Documentarians thereby provide the audience with an engaging sensory experience while prompting reflection. This is also a year of personal stories; half of the selection reflects deeply personal or intimate family narratives, yet through subtly depicted micro-worlds, it mirrors the exciting and often provocative macro-world of the environment, political upheavals, and social struggles. Short documentaries boldly blend cinematic styles and push the boundaries of documentary texture into other genres. We proudly highlight seven talented debutantes from the region whose brave and distinctly original cinematic expressions will define this documentary year,” stated Šešić.
In the Competition Programme – Short Film, selected by Elma Tataragić, there are 12 films this year: 4 will have their world premieres, 2 their international premieres, 1 its European premiere, and 5 their regional premieres.
„This year brings an exciting selection of short films competing for the Heart of Sarajevo Award. It is not unusual that these 12 films selected bring extremely diverse approaches and worlds with themes that are completely different. But regardless of diversity, all authors raise questions of identity, future and perspective in today’s fragile world. And what is perhaps most important, these films bring a touch of freedom, both in expression and in relation to the world,“ says Tataragić about the short film selection.
Asja Krsmanović, the selector of the Competition Programme – Student Film, has included 15 films in the programme, 9 of which will have their world premieres, 2 their international premieres, and 4 their regional premieres.
“Among the 15 films in competition, alongside 11 feature films, there were also three animated and one documentary film. What is particularly pleasing to see in this year’s program is the thematic and stylistic diversity of the works, coupled with a willingness to take risks, refuse compromise, and confidently master the language of cinema. From classic coming-of-age challenges (even those that some characters face in their thirties), to family dramas, questions of identity and migration (both economic and war-induced), class divisions, gender-based violence, and the toxicity of interpersonal and familial relationships, to more complex existential questions about human existence, our connection with nature, and inevitable contemplation of death and the end of the world (whether literal or as we know it), this selection showcases the broadness of topics that young filmmakers are addressing,” stated Krsmanović.
Sarajevo Film Festival dedicates its Competition Programme solely to regional film, showing World, International, European and Regional premieres of films from: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo*, Malta, Moldavia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.
