The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival will host a retrospective of films by screenwriter, director and producer Sergei Loznitsa in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the art of film.
A selection of the esteemed auteur’s films will be presented as part of the Tribute To programme – including feature films MY JOY, IN THE FOG, and DONBASS; documentaries MAIDAN and BABI YAR. CONTEXT; as well as short films PORTRAIT, REFLECTIONS. DIRECTOR’S CUT, and A NIGHT AT THE OPERA.
Loznitsa will also be presented with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award at the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival Opening Ceremony.
The Sarajevo Film Festival has collaborated with Loznitsa in the past – most notably on the BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO anthology, for which Sergei Loznitsa directed REFLECTIONS. As part of the Tribute To programme, the Sarajevo Film Festival will be screening REFLECTIONS. DIRECTOR’S CUT – Loznitsa’s extended take on the short film originally made for the anthology.
Sergei Loznitsa was born in 1964. He grew up in Kyiv (Ukraine), and graduated from the Kyiv Polytechnic in 1987 with a degree in Applied Mathematics. Between 1987 and 1991 he worked as a scientist at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics, specializing in artificial intelligence research. In 1997, Loznitsa graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow, where he studied filmmaking.
Sergei Loznitsa has been making films since 1996, and has by now directed 25 award-winning documentaries and four fiction films.
Loznitsa’s feature debut MY JOY (2010) premiered in the main competition at the Festival de Cannes, followed by his next feature film IN THE FOG (2012), which was awarded the FIPRESCI prize at the 65th Festival de Cannes. In 2017, Sergei Loznitsa presented his third feature A GENTLE CREATURE, also in competition at the Festival de Cannes. In 2018, Loznitsa received the Best Director award of the Un Certain Regard section at the Festival de Cannes for his fourth feature film, DONBASS.
In 2013 Sergei Loznitsa founded film production company ATOMS & VOID.
Sergei Loznitsa’s feature-length documentary MAIDAN (2014) – which chronicles the Ukrainian revolution – had its world premiere as a Séance Special at the Festival de Cannes. His subsequent feature length documentaries, THE EVENT (2015), AUSTERLITZ (2016), THE TRIAL (2018) and STATE FUNERAL (2019) were presented as Special Screenings at the Venice Film Festival. In 2021 Sergei received a Special Jury Prize, L’Oeil D’Or Award, in Cannes for his film BABI YAR. CONTEXT. Loznitsa’s most recent film, THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DESTRUCTION, premiered as a Special Screening at the 75th Festival de Cannes in 2022.
Sergei Loznitsa continues to work both in documentary and feature genres.
The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival will be held from the 12th to the 19th of August, 2022.
