Among the greatest values of a film festival is that it allows cinephiles to meet the directors and film artists whose work they have been watching for years. This year, the Sarajevo Film Festival once again welcomes some of the most celebrated living film artists. In the Masterclass sidebar and organised meetings with audiences, festival-goers have a chance to meet and hear from Paweł Pawlikowski, Asghar Farhadi, Emily Watson, Diego Luna, Céline Sciamma, and Woody Harrelson.
Entrance to Sarajevo Film Festival Masterclasses is free of charge. Sitting is limited.
Tickets can be collected/purchased from tomorrow, Friday, 7 August, at 10 am online HERE or the through Sarajevo Film Festival mobile app (Android / iOS).
Masterclasses Programme:
Saturday, 15.8. / 10:00 – 11:30
Diego Luna
Diego Luna is a Mexican actor, director and producer whose work across film, television and theatre bridges across global audiences. Guided by his artistic prowess in front of and behind the camera, Luna has built a career defined by creative range, social consciousness and a sustained commitment to expanding Latino and Hispanic representation on international stages. The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival will also present Ashes, his latest directorial feature, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Sunday, 16.8. / 10:00 – 11:30
Paweł Pawlikowski is a Polish filmmaker who began his career directing award-winning documentaries before moving into narrative features with Last Resort (2000) and My Summer of Love (2004), both BAFTA-winning films. His film Ida (2013) won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. After that, his Cold War (2018) premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where Pawlikowski was awarded the Best Director Award, and later received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Director. His latest film, Fatherland, will open the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival.
Monday, 17.8. / 10:00 – 11:30
Rodrigo Sorogoyen was born in Madrid in 1981. His short film Mother was nominated for an Academy Award in 2019. He directed, co-wrote, and produced The Beasts, which received numerous accolades, including the César Award for Best Foreign Film, and the Goya Awards for Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Director. He also directed The New Years, a series that had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The Beloved, his most recent film, had its premiere in the Official Competition at this year’s Festival de Cannes.
Tuesday, 18.8. / 15:00 – 16:30
As one of the most acclaimed and versatile actors of his generation, with a career spanning film, television and theatre, Woody Harrelson has earned three Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for The People vs. Larry Flynt and Best Supporting Actor for The Messenger and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and starred in Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness. At the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, Michael Winterbottom’s 1997 film Welcome to Sarajevo, which premiered at Cannes and was also screened at the 3rd Sarajevo Film Festival later that year, will be shown.
Wednesday, 19.8. / 10:00 – 11:30
A two-time Academy Award® nominee, Emily Watson unquestionably belongs among the world’s finest actors, a distinction further acknowledged in 2015 when she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for Services to Drama. Most recently, she starred as Mary Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s award winning historical novel Hamnet. Her notable film credits include Breaking the Waves, God’s Creatures and Small Things Like These for which she was awarded the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Supporting Actress at the Berlinale. Her theatre credits are extensive, including many productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Last year she was awarded the prestigious Richard Harris Award at the 2025 BIFAs, which recognised her outstanding contribution to British film.
Thursday, 20.8. / 10:00 – 11:30
Asghar Farhadi is an acclaimed Iranian director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut with Dancing in the Dust (2002). After the success of About Elly (2009), for which he won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlinale, Farhadi gained international recognition and critical acclaim with A Separation(2011), receiving no less than seventy awards, including an Academy Award® and a César for Best Foreign Film. He then left Iran for France to shoot The Past (2013). He later returned to Iran to direct The Salesman (2016), which premiered in competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where the film won Best Screenplay. The film became Farhadi’s biggest success and earned him the second Academy Award® of his career. His latest film, Parallel Tales, shot in France, was screened at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Friday, 21.8. / 10:00 – 11:30
Céline Sciamma is an acclaimed French filmmaker and screenwriter whose films have established her as one of the leading voices in contemporary European cinema. Her work includes Water Lilies, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, Girlhood, screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, winner of the Best Screenplay Award at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and Petite Maman, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. Renowned for her intimate and emotionally precise storytelling, Sciamma explores themes of identity, memory, desire, and coming of age.
*As part of the Masterclass, the Special Screenings programme will include a screening of Céline Sciamma’s “Tutti Frutti” (France, 2026, 40 min.).
