The Jury of the Competition Programme – Feature Film at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival will consist of Emily Watson (president), Igor Bezinović, Sara Klimoska, Matthijs Wouter Knol, and Athina Rachel Tsangari.
The Jury of the Competition Programme – Feature Film at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival will consist of actress Emily Watson (president), director Igor Bezinović, actress Sara Klimoska, CEO and Director of the European Film Academy Matthijs Wouter Knol, and director Athina Rachel Tsangari.
Watson joins a rich constellation of film auteurs who have previously
presided over the Sarajevo Film Festival Jury in past editions: Mike Leigh (2004), Miki Manojlović (2005), Jasmila Žbanić (2006), Jeremy Irons (2007), Nuri Bilge Ceylan (2008), Mirjana Karanović (2009), Cristi Puiu (2010), Ari Folman (2011), Kornél Mundruczó (2012), Danis Tanović (2013), Béla Tarr (2014), Călin Peter Netzer (2015), Elia Suleiman (2016), Michel Franco (2017), Asghar Farhadi (2018), Ruben Östlund (2019), Michel Hazanavicius (2020), Jasna Đuričić (2021), Sebastian Meise (2022), Mia Wasikowska (2023), Paul Schrader (2024), and Sergei Loznitsa (2025).
The Jury will have the honour of awarding the Heart of Sarajevo Awards in the Competition Programme – Feature Film.
The winners will be announced on Friday, August 21 at the Awards Ceremony.
President of Jury
Emily Watson
Actress, United Kingdom
A two-time Academy Award® nominee, British actress Emily Watson is one of the industry’s most acclaimed performers with a diverse career spanning television, film and theatre. This was highlighted in 2015 when she was appointed an OBE honour for her 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 Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves (European Film Award for Actress of the Year, Oscar® nomination for Best Actress), Hilary and Jackie (Oscar® nomination for Best Actress), A24’s God’s Creatures opposite Paul Mescal, Small Things Like These (Silver Bear for Best Supporting Actress at the Berlinale), Netflix drama Steve, A24 fantasy epic The Legend of Ochi, Richard Eyre’s BBC production of King Lear, On Chesil Beach, Hilary and Jackie, Gosford Park, Punch-Drunk Love, Red Dragon, War Horse, The Book Thief, Testament Of Youth, Everest, Multiple Award-Winning The Theory Of Everything, Molly Moon, Anna Karenina, Belle, Some Girl(s), Cemetery Junction, Miss Potter, The Water Horse, The Corpse Bride, Angela’s Ashes, The Boxer, and Metroland.
On television, Watson starred as the lead in the HBO/Max series Dune: Prophecy and has just finished shooting the second season.
Emily’s theatre credits are extensive, including many productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2002, she received critical acclaim for her starring roles in Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night at the Donmar Warehouse. The shows ran concurrently, and were both directed by Sam Mendes.
Last year Emily was awarded the prestigious Richard Harris Award at the 2025 BIFAs, which recognised her outstanding contribution to British film.
Other accolades include the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award at Gent Film Festival (2024), the Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival (2015) and the Best Actress BAFTA award (2011) for her role in Appropriate Adult.
Additionally, Emily received both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and universal critical acclaim for her work in the HBO/Sky mini-series Chernobyl in 2019.
Igor Bezinović
Director, Croatia
Igor Bezinović is a Croatian filmmaker born in 1983 in Rijeka. He graduated in Film Directing from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, and also studied Philosophy, Sociology, and Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb.
His film Fiume o morte! (2025) won numerous awards, including the European Film Award for Best Documentary, as well as AFA Awards (Adriatic Film&TV Awards) for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.
His other works include the documentaries The Blockade (2012) and Veruda – A Film About Bojan(2015), both of which received the Oktavijan Award for Best Croatian Documentary Film. His debut feature, A Brief Excursion (2017), premiered at Rotterdam and went on to win the Grand Golden Arena for Best Film at the Pula Film Festival.
He has also directed numerous short films screened at international film festivals and venues including Rotterdam, DOK Leipzig, IDFF Jihlava, CPH:DOX, Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, the Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Museum of the Moving Image, and Guanajuato.
Sara Klimoska
Actress, North Macedonia
Sara Klimoska is an actress from North Macedonia who graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje. Since then, she has built a strong career across both national and international film and television projects.
Her latest leading role is in Sister Brother Manhole Cover, directed by Milcho Manchevski, set to premiere in 2026. This marks her third collaboration with the acclaimed director, following Willow and Kaymak.
Sara’s notable film credits also include You Won’t Be Alone by Goran Stolevski, which premiered at Sundance, Housekeeping for Beginners, screened at the Venice Film Festival, Things Unsaid by Eleonora Veninova, and The Erl-King by Goran Radovanović, among others. Internationally, she has appeared in Nico by Eline Gehring, Family Secrets by Malik Vitthal, and Replay by Jason Lester.
She has been part of the Talents Sarajevo at Sarajevo Film Festival, and Berlinale Talents. In 2022, she was nominated for the Heart of Sarajevo award for her role in the TV series Underneath. A year earlier, in 2021, she was recognized as a European Shooting Star for her performance in Lena and Vladimir, directed by Igor Aleksov.
In addition to acting, Sara is now venturing into directing and writing. She is currently developing her second short film Chained.
Matthijs Wouter Knol
CEO and Director of the European Film Academy, Netherlands
Matthijs Wouter Knol is a respected film producer, lecturer, editor and journalist from the Netherlands. Since 2021, Knol is the CEO and Director of the European Film Academy. He is responsible for the executive management, the vision and all related programming of current and future activities of the Academy, including brand and audience development, knowledge sharing and film heritage projects, and the annual European Film Awards.
Before reading and graduating with an MA in Contemporary History at Leiden University (the Netherlands) and the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (Italy), he worked as a magazine editor and journalist. From 2001 onwards, he worked in Amsterdam as creative and associate producer on 30 award-winning documentary films, with renowned directors such as Heddy Honigmann, Maria Augusta Ramos, and Mani Kaul. For ARTE, he co-produced a digital edition of 40 re-mastered works of Dutch documentarian Johan van der Keuken, which was awarded the Prix Cahiers du Cinéma (2006). After a short stint at IDFA (2007-2008), he formed for 12 years part of the senior Berlinale team, first as Head of Programming of Berlinale Talents (2008-2014), then as Director of the European Film Market (2014-2020).
Apart from launching several new training and industry platforms over the course of his career, Matthijs is an advocate for more diversity, equity and inclusion, introducing schemes to support this at Berlinale Talents, EFM and the European Film Academy. He teaches and coaches at various film schools and is a regular moderator and speaker at international film industry events. He has been part of the main jury at the festivals of Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, Istanbul, and Locarno.
Athina Rachel Tsangari
Director, screenwriter and producer, Greece
Athina Rachel Tsangari is considered a principal instigator of the Greek New Wave. Her genre-bending films explore power and desire in gender, class and alterity.
The Slow Business of Going (2001), her M.F.A. thesis feature, was a sci-fi road movie shot in hotel rooms across nine cities around the globe. It went on to garner several Best Film and Best Director awards worldwide, and now resides in MoMA’s permanent film collection.
Her sophomore feature Attenberg (2010) premiered at Venice competition where it won the Coppa Volpi and the Lina Mangiacapre Directing award. Chevalier (2015) won Best Film at BFI-London and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards. Both films were Greece’s official submissions for Best International Film at the Academy Awards.
Tsangari’s short drama The Capsule, a gothic sunshine noir film and video installation was a part of Documenta13, commissioned by the DESTE Foundation.
Under the banner of her Athens-based company HAOS FILM, she produced a number of award-winning films such as Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinetta and Alps, Georgis Grigorakis’ Digger, and was co-producer on Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight.
A DGA and AMPAS member, Tsangari served on juries in Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Sundance, Toronto, Ficunam CDMX, Melbourne, Cinéma du Reel and Visions du Réel. She served as jury president in Venice, Götteborg, and BFI London.
She served as the artistic director of the Oxbelly Screenwriting & Directing Lab during its first years. She is currently the directing mentor at the Torino Film Lab. She has taught cinema at Harvard’s AFVS, UT Austin, Le Fresnoy Art & Media Institute, Béla Tarr’s Film Fabrica and currently at the California Arts Institute.
Her latest feature Harvest, a neo-western starring Caleb Landry Jones and Harry Melling was shot at the Scottish Highlands, premiered at Venice competition in 2024 and has since been released worldwide.
The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from 14 to 21 August 2026.
