Sarajevo Film Festival Sets Competition Titles Including 19 World Premieres

The Sarajevo Film Festival will debut 19 feature films across its four competition strands during its 2024 edition, running from August 16 to 23. 

A total of 54 films will compete for the festival’s Heart of Sarajevo awards. The festival’s four competition sections for feature, documentary, short, and student films will also screen nine international, three European, and 3 national premieres. This year marks Sarajevo’s 30th edition. 

Announcing today’s batch of titles, Jovan Marjanović, Director of the Sarajevo Film Festival, said: “Presenting these 57 premieres, alongside approximately 15 more films in the In Focus and Open Air programs that are yet to be announced, makes the Sarajevo Film Festival once again the place where the broadest audience, as well as film professionals and critics, can gain the most accurate image of film art in Southeast Europe, Ukraine, and the South Caucasus today,” said Jovan Marjanović.”

The festival said today that its programming team led by creative director Izeta Građević viewed 940 films, including 190 feature fiction films, 280 documentaries, and 470 short and student titles during their selection process. 

“These selections are dedicated to new authors, original stories, and concepts,” Građević said. 

The Sarajevo Film Festival competition programme is open for films and filmmakers from Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Türkiye, and Ukraine.

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

Here’s the full list of titles:

COMPETITION PROGRAMME – FEATURE FILM 2024

Awards:

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST FEATURE FILM

Award in the amount of €16,000, co-sponsored by the Tourism Association of Canton Sarajevo

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DIRECTOR

Award in the amount of €10,000, sponsored by the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina in cooperation with UNESCO

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTRESS

Award in the amount of €2,500

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTOR

Award in the amount of €2,500

1. DWELLING AMONG THE GODS / MEĐU BOGOVIMA, Vuk Ršumović (Serbia, Italia, Croatia, 2024, 102 min.) – World premiere

2. FAMILY THERAPY / ODREŠITEV ZA ZAČETNIKE, Sonja Prosenc (Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Norway, Serbia, 2024, 122 min.) – European premiere

3. ARCADIA, Yorgos Zois (Greece, Bulgaria, USA, 2024, 99 min.) – Regional premiere

4. HOLY WEEK / SĂPTĂMÂNA MARE, Andrei Cohn (Romania, Switzerland, 2024, 133 min.) – Regional premiere

5. THE EDITORIAL OFFICE / REDAKTSIYA, Roman Bondarchuk (Ukraine, Germany, Slovakia, Czechia, 2024, 126 min.) – Regional premiere

6. THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE, Mo Harawe (Austria, France, Germany, Somalia, 2024, 132 min.) – Regional premiere

7. THREE KILOMETRES TO THE END OF THE WORLD / TREI KILOMETRI PÂNĂ LA CAPĂTUL LUMII, Emanuel Pârvu (Romania, 2023, 105 min.) – Regional premiere

8. HOLY ELECTRICITY / TSMINDA ELEKTROENERGIA, Tato Koteshivili (Georgia, Netherlands, 2024, 95 min.) – Regional premiere

9. MOTHER MARA / MAJKA MARA, Mirjana Karanović (Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg, 2024, 96 min.) – Gala screening, World premiere, out of competition

COMPETITION PROGRAMME – DOCUMENTARY FILM 2024

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

Award in the amount of €4,000, sponsored by the Government of Switzerland

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM

Award in the amount of €2,000

HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD

Award in the amount of €3,000, sponsored by the Kingdom of the Netherlands

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

Award in the amount of €2,500

1. BIANG BIANG EXPRESS / MIÀN MIÀN JÙ DÀO, Nikola Stojanović (Serbia, China, 2024, 10 min.) – World premiere

2. DAD’S LULLABY / TATOVA KOLYSKOVA, Lesia Diak (Ukraine, Romania, Croatia, 2024, 78 min.) – World premiere

3. YOUR LIFE WITHOUT ME / AZ ÉLETED NÉLKÜLEM, Anna Rubi (Hungary, Sweden, 2024, 72 min.) – World premiere

4. HETEROTOPIA / HETEROTOPIJA, Nikola Nikolić (Serbia, 2024, 7 min.) – International premiere

5. LOXY, Dimitris Zahos, Thanasis Kafetzis (Greece, 2024, 87min.) – International premiere

6. OUR CHILDREN / NAŠA DJECA, Silvestar Kolbas (Croatia, 2024, 92 min.) – International premiere

7. THE SEAGULL / GALEB, David Lušičić (Croatia, 2024, 29 min.) – International premiere

8. WHAT WE ASK OF A STATUE IS THAT IT DOESN’T MOVE / AFTO POU ZITAME APO ENA AGALMA INE NA MIN KINITE, Daphné Hérétakis (Greece, France, 2024, 31 min.) – International premiere

9. RE:VISITED JASENOVAC, Admir Rahmanović (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden, 2023, 12 min.) – European premiere

10. ALICE ON & OFF, Isabela Tent (Romania, 2024, 86 min.) – Regional premiere

11. A PICTURE TO REMEMBER / FOTO NA PAM’YAT, Olga Chernykh (Ukraine, France, Germany, 2023, 72 min.) – Regional premiere

12. BETWEEN DELICATE AND VIOLENT / ZARAFET VE ŞIDDET ARASINDA, Şirin Bahar Demirel (Turkey, Netherlands, 2023, 15 min.) – Regional premiere

13. CENT’ANNI, Maja Prelog (Slovenia, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Austria, 2024, 87 min.) – Regional premiere

14. FRAGMENTS OF ICE / FRAGMENTY LYODU, Maria Stoianova (Ukraine, Norway, 2024, 95 min.) – Regional premiere

15. … NED, TASSOT, YOSSOT …, Brigitte Weich (Austria, 2023, 99 min.) – Regional premiere

16. PAIN / BOL, Ivan Faktor (Croatia, 2024, 22 min.) – Regional premiere

17. PAVILION 6 / PAVILJON 6, Goran Dević (Croatia, 2024, 69 min.) – Regional premiere

18. AT THE DOOR OF THE HOUSE WHO WILL COME KNOCKING / KO ĆE POKUCATI NA VRATA MOG DOMA, Maja Novaković (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, 2024, 85 min.) – B&H premiere

19. LIKE A SICK YELLOW / SI E VERDHË E SËMUR, Norika Sefa (Kosovo*, 2024, 23 min.) – B&H premiere

20. PRASLOVAN, Slobodan Maksimović (Slovenia, Croatia, 2024, 112 min.) – World premiere, out of competition

21. BEKIM FEHMIU, Valmir Tertini (Albania, 2023, 66 min.) – B&H premiere, out of competition.

COMPETITION PROGRAMME – SHORT FILM 2024

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT FILM

Eligible for Oscar® nomination

Award in the amount of €2,500

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM CANDIDATE

1. BONACA, Luka Vlaho (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2024, 14 min.) – World premiere

2. GAIA, Enis Čišić, Nermin Hamzagić (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2024, 11 min.) – World premiere

3. SEPTEMBER DAWN / RUJNA ZORA, Ivan Đurović (Serbia, USA, 2024, 25 min.) – World premiere

4. @TIKTOK_COWBOY, Anastaseu Ștefan (Romania, 2024, 17 min.) – World premiere

5. ALIVE / ZHYVA, Vladlen Odudenko (Ukraine, 2023, 12 min.) – International premiere

6. ELENE DARIANI, Elene Tavadze (Georgia, 2024, 15 min.) – International premiere

7. PLOT REVENGE / ZEMBEREK, Recep Çavdar (Türkiye, Spain, 2023, 20 min.) – European premiere

8. ABSENT / NOKSAN, Cem Demirer (Türkiye, 2024, 23 min.) – Regional premiere

9. ON THE WAY / RRUGËS, Samir Karahoda (Kosovo*, 2024, 15 min.) – Regional premiere

10. SANKI YOXSAN, Azer Guliev (Azerbaijan, France, 2024, 15 min.) – Regional premiere

11. TAKO TSUBO, Eva Pedroza, Fanny Sorgo (Austria, Germany, 2024, 6 min.) – Regional premiere

12. THE MAN WHO COULD NOT REMAIN SILENT / ČOVJEK KOJI NIJE MOGAO ŠUTJETI, Nebojša Slijepčević (Croatia, France, Bulgaria, Slovenia, 2024, 13 min.) – Regional premiere

COMPETITION PROGRAMME – STUDENT FILM 2024