After scooping the Global Production Award for the best “City of Film” during Cannes in
May, the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival returns to the streets of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Luminaries who will receive honorary awards for their contribution to the cinematic art
include Lynne Ramsay, Charlie Kaufman, and Mark Cousins. Each of these filmmakers
will attend the gala screening of one of their films – Ramsay’s stripped-back revenge
thriller starring Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here; the Spike Jonze-directed
adaptation, for which Charlie Kaufman wrote the astonishing Oscar-nominated screenplay,
Being John Malkovich; and Mark Cousin’s recent documentary March on Rome, in which
he wrangles with the propaganda of Mussolini. Each of the awarded filmmakers will also
deliver a masterclass during the festival.
Since its 2022 iteration, the festival has established annual awards for regional films, which
will gather more than 400 film and television professionals to determine their winners.
While the award ceremony will not take place until January 2024, the festival continues to warrant its
standing as a central film hub for the Balkan region, with a host of local talent amongst
those competing for the prestigious Heart of Sarajevo awards. Here are just some of the films making
world or regional premieres in the festival’s competition programmes: Sudabeh
Mortezai’s Europa, Christina Iakeimidi’s Medium, Tudor Giurgiu’s Libertate, Andrei Tãnase’s
Day of the Tiger, Nemanja Vojinovic’s Bottlemen, and Kumjana Novakova’s Silence of
Reason.
Actress Mia Wasikowska will act as president of the main jury this year alongside fellow
thesps Zlatko Buric and Danica Curcic, actor and director Juraj Lerotic and the curator of
MOMA’s Department of Film, Josh Siegel. Members of some of the festival’s other juries
include the artist director of CPH: DOX, Niklas Engstrom, festival director of Sydney Film
Festival, Nashen Moodley, and the head of programming at the EYE Filmmuseum, Mila
Schlingemann.
Elsewhere, the subject of this year’s ‘Tribute To’ programme will be Austrian writer and
director Jessica Hausner, following in the footsteps of Lucrecia Martel, Jia Zhang-ke,
and, last year, Sergei Loznitsa. Hausner’s most recent film, Club Zero, is an “offbeat
thriller about a classroom cult of teenage diet extremists” and premiered at Cannes this
year. Alongside that, the festival will screen several of her earlier works including Lovely Rita
(2001), Lourdes (2009), and Amour Fou (2014).
Outside of the dedicated feature competitions and focus strands, there is once again a
strong offering of short and mid-length films at this year’s festival. They range from Anna Dziapshipa’s
Self-Portrait Along the Borderline, which took home the top prize at Visions du Reél, to
Flóra Anna Buda’s 27, Douwe Dijkstra’s Neighbour Abdi, Lawrence Lek’s Theta, and Mila
Zhluktenko and Daniel Asadi Faezi’s Waking up in Silence. Equally, a selection of premium
titles from this year’s festival circuit pop up in the Summer Screen, Kinoscope, and Open Air
sections. These include this year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes Anatomy of a Fall by Justine
Triet, Celine Song’s Past Lives, Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, and Baloji’s Omen, among
many others.
A highlight from the Dealing with the Past section is the Bosnian premiere of Jean-Gabriel Périot’s
exceptional documentary Facing Darkness, which explores filmmakers who continued
shooting footage during the siege of Sarajevo.
Beyond the screening of selected films themselves, Sarajevo’s CineLink Industry Days are
back with a bang (from 12-17 August), featuring a whole range of initiatives and events. The
series of CineLink Talks span all parts of the industry, from a conversation with acting
theorist and coach Ivana Chubbuck, to discussions of green initiatives in film production,
global PR campaigns, financing, and the always highly-anticipated pitching sessions. In
addition, there will also be opportunities for accredited participants to see material from
the festival’s Work in Progress showcase, and the CineLink Producer’s Lab returns after
making its bow in 2022.
