Festival Flashback: Looking Back to 2019 at the Sarajevo Film Festival

This year marks the 30th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival. SFF is the largest and most premier festival in Southeast Europe. The festival was launched during the siege of the Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.

The first Sarajevo Film Festival was held from 25 October to 5 November 1995. With the siege of Sarajevo still going on, attendance projections were very low. However, a surprising 15,000 people came to see the films, of which there were 37 from 15 different countries. The festival grew at a remarkable pace, and now attracts more than 100,000 people annually on all programs and screening hundreds of films from 60 countries.

In 2019, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the Sarajevo Film Festival the status of the Academy Award qualifying film festival in the Short Filmcategory. Short films that win the Heart of Sarajevo Award and the nomination for the European Film Academy (EFA) will be eligible for consideration in the Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film category of the Academy Awards without the standard theatrical run, provided that they otherwise comply with the Academy rule.

At the 25th edition of SFF, Ruben Östlund, was the president of the jury. Three years later he received the honorary heart of Sarajevo Award with ‘Triangle of Sadness’ as the opening film.

We look back to the feature film winners of 2019:

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST FEATURE FILM


TAKE ME SOMEWHERE NICE
Directed
by Ena Sendijarevic

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DIRECTOR

Emin Alper
A TALE OF THREE SISTERS

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTRESS

Irini Jambonas
ROUNDS

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTOR

Levan Gelbakhiani
AND THEN WE DANCED

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT FILM – Oscar® qualifying

/ POSLEDNJA SLIKA O OCU
Directed by Stefan Dordevic

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

WHEN THE PERSIMMONS GREW
Directed by Hilal Baydarov

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
STACK OF MATERIAL
Directed by Sajra Subašic