Organizer
The Sarajevo Film Festival has established awards for TV series in 2021. The founder and organizer of the Sarajevo Film Festival is Obala Art Center from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo Film Festival is an international film/TV series festival held annually in Sarajevo.
Goals
The goal of the Heart of Sarajevo Awards for TV series is to promote the highest quality regional television series and to establish a platform through which regional projects will receive additional promotion and the opportunity to present themselves to the international audio-visual market. The establishment of these awards seeks to encourage the development and quality of regional audio-visual content and open space for the creation of joint regional projects.
Through the awarding of prizes to the best series, authors, actors, and other deserving individuals, the interest of audio-visual production and broadcasters in creating even better content and for greater investment in the segment of audio-visual production will be enhanced.
Date of the event
The award ceremony will take place during the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival (from 11 to 18 August 2023).
About the Awards
The Sarajevo Film Festival has established the TV Series Awards in 2021.
All interested owners of TV series rights are applying for their project to be considered for participation in the nominations for the 2022/2023 season.
The following have the right to apply:
• Drama series and comedies premiered between 1 April 2022 and 30 April 2023 made by producers/broadcasters from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Kosovo* and Slovenia;
• High End drama series and comedies;
• Series whose broadcasting began before 12 March 2023;
• For the possibility of nomination, it is necessary to register all episodes of the series, which should be available to the Professional Jury;
• Only the producer/rights holders submit the series in the desired categories. You can see all the categories in the Categories Award section for TV series;
• Deadline for applications - Applications will be accepted until 5 May at 23:59.
The producer/rights holders undertake to ensure the presence of nominated team members of the series (director, producer, actors, etc.) at the award ceremonies. The organizer of the Festival will cover the costs of three nights in Sarajevo for all nominees.
All nominees undertake to participate in official promotional events and PR activities organized by the Sarajevo Film Festival, for the purpose of promoting the series, nominations, and the awards ceremony, including official red carpet.
Award Categories for TV series 2023
The Heart of Sarajevo Awards for TV Series 2023 categories are:
DRAMA SERIES
1. Best Drama Series (award goes to producers and creators)
2. Best Leading Actress
3. Best Leading Actor
4. Best Supporting Actress
5. Best Supporting Actor
6. Rising star
7. Best Director (for the episode)
8. Best Screenplay (for the episode)
In the categories for the best main and supporting roles in drama series, production companies submit one candidate each. If the series has an ensemble cast, feel free to suggest two or more actors/actresses.
COMEDIES
1. Best Comedy (award goes to producers and creators)
2. Best Leading Actress
3. Best Leading Actor
4. Best Director (for the episode)
5. Best Screenplay (for the episode)
In the categories for the best roles in comedies, production companies submit one candidate each. If the series has an ensemble cast feel free to suggest two or more actors/actresses.
Sarajevo film Festival reserve the right not to realize some categories of awards every year.
Selection
• The SFF Organizing Committee administers applications and forwards eligible ones to members of the Professional Jury, who watch the series;
• Professional Jury consists of film and television professionals and winners of the Heart of Sarajevo Awards. Professional Jury is conceived as a nucleus of a future academy;
• Professional Jury watches all series that have applied and meet the criteria and participate in the selection for nominations;
• In the period from 11 May to 10 June 2022, Professional Jury watches all series that have applied and meet the criteria and votes for nominations;
• Each category can have a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 8 nominees;
• Nominations are formed based on the votes of members of the Professional Jury. Sarajevo Film Festival has the right to add 1 nomination per category;
• End of June / beginning of July 2023 - Publication of nominations by categories;
• Productions whose submitted TV series which are not nominated will be notified as soon as possible, and no later than 20 June 2023;
• The nominated series will be available for viewing by the Professional Jury by 31 July 2023, on the digital platform of the Sarajevo Film Festival;
• Professional Jury votes for the winners of the Heart of Sarajevo based on nominations in all categories;
• Voting for the winners will be realized online, via the voting form in the period from 1 July to 31 July 2023 at 23:59;
• All members of the Professional Jury vote for all categories;
• The decision on awards in all categories is made exclusively by the Professional Jury.
Instructions and application materials for TV series
All applications must contain the following:
• Properly completed application form;
• Links to all episodes of the reported series.
Please read our TV series application rules carefully and submit your series accordingly. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at tvseries.awards@sff.ba.
Application deadlines
Applications for the TV series are open until 5 May 2023.
Application fees and obligations
Submissions are free.
It is possible to submit an application for more than one series. It is obligatory to fill in separate applications for each series you apply for, and you can do that from the same Eventival account.
Obligations of nominated series
After the published nominations in all categories and their acceptance, the nomination cannot be subsequently withdrawn.
Information on nominations must be kept secret until the official announcement of the Festival.
Nominated TV series are required to provide all available promotional materials of the series: stills from the series, trailer, poster and other promotional material, which the Festival has the right to use in a format that suits it.
The participants of the Festival are obliged to adhere to the rules and regulations of the Festival stated here.
Promotional material
To promote festival programs and individual series, the Festival has the right to use on its website any photo, trailer, or clip from the series in digital format (less than 3 minutes).
Format
All episodes of the series will be set on the digital platform of the Sarajevo Film Festival, available only to the Professional Jury for viewing.
All TV series must be submitted in the original language and subtitled in English.
You need to submit each file individually with the following maximum specifications:
• Video resolution: 1920x1080 pixels;
• Video bitrate: 2000 kbps;
• Video codec: H.264 in ".mp4" container - Video file size: Up to 1GB;
• Audio format: AAC Stereo Mix or AC3;
• Subtitles: Engraved or separated subtitles in English (if the dialogs in the file are not in English and if applicable) in “.srt” file format;
• Without any watermark or embossed logo/message.
Conclusion
Agreeing to the nominations for the Heart of Sarajevo Awards for TV Series, is also considered acceptance of the obligation to respect all the above festival rules and criteria. The Board of Directors of the Sarajevo Film Festival reserves the right to decide on all disputes that are not explicitly regulated by these festival rules.
Online submission form can be found HERE.
If you have additional questions, please contact the e-mail address: tvseries.awards@sff.ba.
* This name, without prejudice to the status of Kosovo, is in line with Resolution 1244 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.
