Festival In Focus: As Sarajevo Film Festival’s 30th Edition Moves To New Headquarters, The Manifesto Remains The Same: “We Want To See The Local Film Industry Thrive”

When the Sarajevo Film Festival was born in the midst of the Bosnian War in 1995, the festival’s initial aim was to reconstruct and regenerate the capital city and its inhabitants who had been cut off from the rest of the world during the four-year siege. With the festival set to kick off its 30th edition on Friday, these early objectives – to support the local industry while also driving the city forward – still remain as this year’s edition will see the event move the bulk of its events from its usual home in Sarajevo’s old town to the Marijin Dvor neighborhood, a modern district of the city. 

For festival director Jovan Marjanović, it’s a move that will signify a new era of a much-loved festival that has served as an essential launching pad for regional talent. “We’re testing the waters with this new place,” he tells Deadline. “And I hope that it allows for more infrastructure for the future of the festival. It’s a significant move for us because all of the industry activities are moving to a new location at downtown’s Hotel Holiday and the nearby Cineplexx Cinemas as well as another big screening room around there.” 

The new downtown location, he adds, is close to a number of hotels and from a pure infrastructure point of view, it’s a positive move for the growing event, which Marjanović compares to Berlinale’s move from Zoo Palast to Potzdamer Platz in 2000. There will be a new open-air cinema for screenings while the new Festival Garden will house the opening night party and various events throughout the festival. 

“The city really loves the festival and there’s a lot of local pride involved in that which is great and that’s what builds the festival,” says Marjanović. “But the festival needs to have a reason to exist, and I think Sarajevo is this reason. It’s been the DNA of the festival since the very beginning, and we want to showcase the best of cinema to our audience. We want to help the local filmmakers make their films and we want to see the local film industry thrive. So, it’s very clear why we exist because seeing the best of cinema is almost an essential human need. This passion for film is something that really drives the festival forward and makes both the city and filmmakers love it.” 

Sarajevo opens on August 16 with the world premiere of Danis Tanović’s My Late Summer, a comedy-drama about a young woman who comes to a remote island to solve her family inheritance issues. Bosnian writer-director Tanović, who is a two-time Berlin Silver-Bear winner for An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker in 2013 and Death in Sarajevo in 2016, opened Sarajevo in 2021 with Not So Friendly Neighborhood Affair. In 2014, he was the recipient of an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award for his contribution to cinema.  

A total of 54 films will compete for the festival’s Heart of Sarajevo awards across the festival’s four competition sections for feature, documentary, short and student films. Among these will be nine international, three European and three national premieres. World premieres include Dwelling Among the Gods from Serbian director Vuk Ršumović and an out-of-competition screening of Mother Mara from Serbian multi-hyphenate Mirjana Karanović, whose directorial debut A Good Wife premiered in Sundance in 2016. A few years ago, the festival opened up its programming to include Ukraine in its official selection and this year projects from that country include the world premiere of Tatova Kolyskova’s doc Dad’s Lullaby and Roman Bondarchuk’s feature The Editorial Office. 

“There are a lot of things bubbling in this region because of the war in Ukraine and everything that is happening in the Middle East, but I don’t think the films are about that,” says Marjanović, who noted that the programming team led by creative director Izeta Gradević viewed 940 films during the selection process. “I think the filmmakers we are seeing in competition this year are giving a reflection of what goes on beyond the news and this is why cinema can be such an addition and a prism through which to see both the individual and the collective and parts of societies that we live in. 

“When you put that in this geographical focus – as we do in our competition sections as a way to curate it – we can see these stories give a lot of nuances that you don’t always get from the news. The approach this year was to go deeper and explore both the individual and the collective experience in this part of the world, which is usually on the periphery of various cultural centers.” 

While last year’s unprecedented dual writers-actors strikes stopped a number of stars from attending the talent-friendly festival, the 30th edition looks set to draw in a host of top-tier Hollywood names. Sideways andThe Holdovers director Alexander Payne is set to receive an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award and will host a masterclass in addition to introducing a screening of Sideways. Meg Ryan will also receive an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award and will be in town to present a screening of romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail at the festival, 25 years after it screened at the fifth edition of the festival in 1999. Ryan will also participate in a masterclass about her career and latest project What Happens Later, which she directed and stars in opposite David Duchovny. Tanović will host the masterclass. 

Actor-filmmaker John Turturro is also set to receive an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award and will conduct a masterclass, offering insights into his extensive career and craft. He will also make a special appearance at a screening of the Coen brothers’ acclaimed title Barton Fink, where he starred in the titular role. 

The festival is also awarding Palestinian director Elia Suleiman with an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award in addition to screening a retrospective of selected works by the filmmaker. Suleiman was a guest at the festival in 2019, where his film It Must Be Heaven was screened in the Open Air program. He also served as president of the jury in 2016. 

The jury for this year’s festival will be led by legendary writer and filmmaker Paul Schrader. He’ll be joined by actor Sebastian Cavazza, filmmaker Una Gunjak, director Juho Kuosmanen and actress Noomi Rapace. 

Looking back at the last 30 years, Marjanović (who has been with the festival since 1999, starting out as a technician and program coordinator) says he’s proud that the festival has remained true to its original manifesto: “We are first and foremost for the people of our city while supporting young filmmakers from the region and rebuilding an international film industry around it.” 

For him, the standout milestones of the festival include its first editions, which were held in reclaimed places in the city that had been either destroyed during the siege or completely neglected, building its industry segment CineLink in 2003 and adding its popular television strand in 2016. 

As for growth and ambitions for the next 30 years, Marjanović says: “I think the festival can definitely grow but it needs to grow responsibly, as it has done so far. It needs to be an organic growth, and this move of festival headquarters is informed by that.”

The Sarajevo Film Festival runs August 16-23.