Jovan Marjanović: Watching Films with Others Is a Valuable Experience

At a time when one can watch films almost anywhere, festival going becomes more valuable than ever. Beyond the fact that festivals make films available to us, they let us watch films together and cthey reate space for discussion and the exchange of different viewpoints. We do not attend festivals simply because we share a mindset with the other attendees; we attend them because we believe watching films together with other people is a valuable experience. It is this shared experience that offers what no digital platform can: a meeting place that provides the chance for filmmakers and audiences to meet in person, the chance for the crossing of paths of diverse cultures, and of people of different generations and different life experiences. 

 

This August, Sarajevo once again becomes such a meeting place. Filmmakers, actors, producers, distributors, festival programmers, and film students will gather in our city, where we will screen more than 250 films and where more than 150,000 visitors from around the world will fill cinemas and festival venues, while in parallel new creative partnerships are forged and future films developed withing CineLink Industry Days. The forthcoming edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival opens with a screening of FATHERLAND by Paweł Pawlikovski, one of today’s most distinguished filmmakers. The film explores issues of identity, belonging, and contemporary Europe, and is a powerful introduction into the themes that distinguish this year’s event. 

 

The evening before the official opening of the festival, we present a screening in the Coca-Cola Open Air Cinema of a fully restored copy of Ivica Matić’s1976 film LANDSCAPE WITH A WOMAN, one of the most notable films ever produced in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A digital restoration of Danis Tanović’s NO MAN’S LAND closes the festival, a quarter of a century after it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. A thread connects these three films, one that reminds us that great films do not belong only to the time when they are created but are reborn in every new meeting with audiences. This idea permeates the entirety of this year’s festival programme. 

 

Its competition sections feature fifty-one recently produced films from Southeast Europe, among which twentyone have their world premieres in Sarajevo. Many of the filmmakers behind the films in the competition will have their first encounters with audiences in Sarajevo. Our city has become a place where films produced in our region make their first stop before embarking on the international festival circuit. This is the cumulative result of more than three decades of building trust with the directors who bring their films to our festival. The Open Air Premieres programme, which we launched last year so filmmakers from our immediate neighbourhood can bond even more strongly with audiences, will now have a dedicated award, the Prix Cineplexx. It is an award presented to a film selected by the audience, and we hope that in time it will become a recognition that will distinguish the winning films long after their festival premieres. 

 

While competition programmes are understandably a focus of significant attention, the Sarajevo Film Festival has always been more than just a competition. Each of its programmes offers a different view of contemporary film production, from the In Focus and BH Film programmes, which showcase regional films, through the Open Air, Kinoscope, Summer Screen, and European Short programmes, in which significant recent European and global films are presented, to the Special Screenings programme, which, for the first time this year, also includes a Midnight Screenings section. 

 

A special place in the festival is reserved for young people in the Children’s Programme and TeenArena, and we continue to offer film selections dedicated to supporting human rights initiatives, healing the wounds of conflict in our Dealing with the Past programme, and international partnerships, most notably our longstanding collaboration with the Doha Film Institute. Film festivals are where we talk about the art of cinema today, its heritage, and its future. 

 

In this year’s Tribute to programme, we honour Asghar Farhadi, one of the most important filmmakers of our time. We also launch a new three-year programme to celebrate the legacy of Béla Tarr and the students of his experimental Sarajevo-based film.factory. Rather than organising a retrospective of  Tarr’s own films, we focus on his legacy by presenting films by the young filmmakers who were mentored by the master and went on to build their international careers after their time at the film.factory. We believe that there is no better way to celebrate a teacher than by celebrating the work of their students. 

 

It is a special privilege to present the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award to Emily Watson, Woody Harrelson, Diego Luna, Asghar Farhadi, and Emir Hadžihafizbegović, each of whom has left a special mark on international and regional cinema. We are especially proud that this year’s laureates include an artist whose work has left a special mark on Bosnian film. Celebrating artists from the birthplace of the festival is an important foundation for building international respect. 

 

Of course, the Sarajevo Film Festival is made up of far more than just the names that are mentioned in the introduction. The festival exists because of the many filmmakers who trust us with their films, the members of our juries, our partners and sponsors, the institutions that support us, our team, and the hundreds of volunteers who, year after year, help us put the festival together. And, more than anything, this festival exists because of our audience. Thank you for sharing your time, your trust, and your curiosity with us for thirty-two years. 


Welcome to the 32nd edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Jovan Marjanović Sarajevo Film Festival Director