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The Sarajevo Film Festival returns to the Bosnian capital from Aug. 14 – 21 with festival director Jovan Marjanović promising “some looking back and some looking forward” ahead of the 32nd edition.
“It’s been a joy and
a big responsibility putting it together,” Marjanović tells Variety. “It was a great year for international cinema…. It’s a really vital and exciting time to be watching cinema from this part of the world.”
This year’s edition kicks off with “Fatherland,” from Oscar-winning Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski (“Ida”), who earned best director honors for the period drama after its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It wraps with a screening of “No Man’s Land,” the Academy Award-winning war satire by Bosnian director Danis Tanović, which is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its release.
Across its various competition sections, the festival will feature 21 world premieres, six international premieres, one European premiere and 23 regional premieres. Highlights from the main competition include regional premieres for Kosovo-born filmmaker Visar Morina’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner “Shame and Money,” Austrian director Sandra Wollner’s Un Certain Regard winner “Everytime,” and Kosovar filmmaker Blerta Basholli’s Cannes Critics’ Week premiere “Dua,” the follow-up to her Sundance-winning debut “Hive.” World premieres include “Everything That’s Wrong With You,” the fourth feature from Slovenian director Urša Menart.
Other standouts from this year’s program include the regional premieres of “Fjord,” the Palme d’Or winner in Cannes from Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu; “Minotaur,” from two-time Oscar nominee Andrei Zvyagintsev, which won the festival’s Grand Prix; and “Everytime,” from Austrian filmmaker Sandra Wollner, the winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard prize.
The feature film competition jury is headed by two-time Academy Award nominee Emily Watson, who will also receive an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award. Other recipients include Woody Harrelson, who will be in attendance for a screening of “Welcome to Sarajevo,” Michael Winterbottom’s 1997 war drama featuring the American screen star, as well as Mexican actor, director and producer Diego Luna. Luna will also be on hand for a screening of “Ashes,” his fifth directorial feature, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Meanwhile, two-time Oscar-winning Iranian director and screenwriter Asghar Farhadi will also receive an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo alongside a career-spanning retrospective of his work.
As always, the Sarajevo festival provides a snapshot of filmmaking in the Balkan region, with more than 50 films from Southeast Europe screening across the various competition sections, presenting titles that “paint a complex picture of where film is right now, as well as where we are as a society, and what’s preoccupying us,” according to Marjanović.
“This is something that is built into the festival,” he says. “We really try, on one hand, to present the best of cinema from Southeast Europe and from our region. At the same time, we want to be a launching pad for them, we want to be a platform for them.”
Born amid the siege of Sarajevo during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, the festival has grown exponentially in the three decades since to become the premier showcase of films from Southeast Europe, and a regular stopover for Hollywood luminaries making the rounds of the continent’s summer festival circuit.
Nevertheless, says Marjanović, something of those wartime roots remains embedded in the festival’s DNA. “You’re not waiting for anyone else to do it for you. You go and forge your own way,” he says. “That’s the spirit of the festival and always has been. And I hope that it will remain so.”
For now, one thing remains certain: the love affair between the Sarajevo Film Festival and its host city is as strong as ever. Year-on-year admissions continue to smash records, and a robust turnout — from the city’s open-air cinemas to the festival’s masterclasses and after-hours events — is all but guaranteed.
“It’s really worth reminding ourselves why we’re doing this,” says Marjanović. “When you see all the people coming together to see films, to discuss them, to share the joy of the festival, and feeling proud about their city and where they’re coming from — it’s really gratifying.
“This has been a great summer in Sarajevo and in Bosnia with the World Cup,” he continues. “Everybody came together. I think the festival lands at the end of a very exciting summer for the city and the country, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how this communal joy transforms the city.”
The Sarajevo Film Festival runs Aug. 14 – 21.
