After successfully establishing annual awards for TV series three years ago, Sarajevo Film Festival also establishes annual awards for regional films, which will be selected on the same principle.
The voting committee, which so far gathers more than 450 film and TV professionals, will work on nominations and winners of awards for the best regional films in the same way as for TV series.
The awards ceremony will take place in the winter ambience of the Olympic mountains surrounding Sarajevo. The first edition of the award ceremony for regional films is planned at Jahorina in January 2024.
The voting committee will grow by then: new members are expected to receive them and gradually transform this informal committee into the Regional Film and TV Academy, which, in addition to deciding on annual awards, will take on the idea of transferring knowledge and experience to a new generation of film and TV professionals and serve to promote and protect the profession throughout the region.
More news about the start of the Academy will follow in the upcoming period.
“After the numerous challenges of the digital transition, the impact of the pandemic, the regional market for the film is slowly consolidating. I believe that the evaluation of the best regional films by the profession will contribute to their even stronger positioning and visibility on the domestic market, so that regional films will have an even higher viewership and a greater share on the domestic market. The fact that none of the countries in the region has their own film and TV academy is indicative, and we think that from these activities will naturally arise one such body that will serve the rejuvenation, promotion and protection of our profession,” said Jovan Marjanović, the director of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
News of the annual awards ceremony for regional films was announced at the Ponta Lopud Festival.
The partner of the Sarajevo Film Festival for the annual regional film awards for January 2024 is the Jahorina Olympic Center.
“I am happy that the regional film industry will be gathered at the ski weekend in Jahorina in January next year. Along with giving recognition to the greatest film achievements, I believe that this event will show the capacities at our disposal, what great professionals and beauties of the Olympic mountains we have, and that the upcoming regional ski weekend will become a recognizable event, a kind of ‘Balkan Sundance’,” said Dejan Ljevnaić, director of the Jahorina Olympic Center.
The 29th Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from 11th to 18th of August 2023.
