Sarajevo Film Festival Selects 19 World Premieres in Competition Sections

The Sarajevo Film Festival, which focuses on films from Southeast Europe, the South Caucasus and Ukraine, has selected 54 films to compete for its Heart of Sarajevo awards. Three films play out of competition. The festival’s 30th edition will run from Aug. 16 to 23.

Jovan Marjanović, director of the festival, said the awards would “amplify voices from the region and bring them closer to the global audience.”

The festival’s four competition sections – for feature, documentary, short and student film – will feature 19 world, nine international, three European, 21 regional and three national premieres.

Marjanović said the program makes the event “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.”

He added: “These regions are simultaneously in the spotlight and on the margins of global attention, and the festival provides a unique opportunity for a deeper understanding of all nuances of experience from the geopolitical and artistic margins that are often missing in forming a complex picture of the present day.”

Competition Program – Feature Film

“Dwelling Among the Gods” (Među Bogovima), Vuk Ršumović (Serbia, Italia, Croatia) – world premiere
“Family Therapy” (Odrešitev Za Začetnike), Sonja Prosenc (Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Norway, Serbia) – European premiere
“Arcadia,” Yorgos Zois (Greece, Bulgaria, U.S.) – regional premiere
“Holy Week” (Săptămâna Mare), Andrei Cohn (Romania, Switzerland) – regional premiere
“The Editorial Office” (Redaktsiya), Roman Bondarchuk (Ukraine, Germany, Slovakia, Czech Rep.) – regional premiere
“The Village Next to Paradise,” Mo Harawe (Austria, France, Germany, Somalia) – regional premiere
“Three Kilometres to the End of the World” (Trei Kilometri Până La Capătul Lumii), Emanuel Pârvu (Romania) – regional premiere
“Holy Electricity” (Tsminda Elektroenergia), Tato Koteshivili (Georgia, Netherlands) – regional premiere
“Mother Mara” (Majka Mara), Mirjana Karanović (Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg) – Gala Screening, world premiere, out of competition