CineLink Industry Days announces selection for Work in Progress 2025

The selection includes 11 new feature-length films: 8 fiction and 3 documentaries which will be presented to international high-profile industry professionals (funders, sales agents, distributors, broadcasters and festival programmers) with the aim of assisting their completion and enhancing their distribution possibilities. 

The selection encompasses a broad stylistic and genre spectrum, and narratives that are both deeply personal and socially resonant. Many of the selected works explore the complexities of human nature and the fragility of social consensus, and the tensions between collective expectations and personal anxieties. What unites these films is a shared sensitivity to the nuances of human relationships, between generations, individuals, and communities. At their core lies a strong drive to understand the other, affirm dignity, and explore the resilience of individuals and communities in the face of violence and inequality. Together, these films promise an exciting and thought-provoking year ahead, with stories that resonate across a broad and diverse audience. As the region’s stories become more complex, our partners step forward with equally ambitious backing, and we are thankful for their unwavering support.

This edition deepens CineLink’s partner ecosystem, matching ambitious regional filmmaking with robust finishing, financing and impact resources:

Newly introduced awards in 2025 

HBO Award -  €30 000 cash 

A direct license across 15 HBO territories in Central and Southeast Europe, providing completion funding and a guaranteed broadcast window. The winning project will have the opportunity to be aired on the linear HBO channel and included in the high-quality content library of the HBO Max streaming platform, helping it reach a broad international audience and positioning it among compelling storytelling.

Avanpost Media Award - €30 000 in‑kind 

Added to Work in Progress this year. Together with Avanpost’s ongoing €20 000 support for Docu Rough Cut Boutique, the company now invests €50 000 annually across CineLink’s finishing platforms offering post-production services. 

Returning awards from long‑standing partners

TRT Award -  €10 000 cash  
A long‑standing collaboration with Turkish Radio Television. The amount is transferred to the production company by the Festival and formalised as a licence agreement for TV rights within Türkiye.

Post Republic Award -  €30 000 in‑kind 

Covers colour‑grading or sound‑mix services. Berlin‑based Post Republic was among the very first supporters of CineLink Work in Progress and remains a cornerstone of the platform’s success.

Projects from both Work in Progress and Docu Rough Cut Boutique also compete for the CineLink Impact Award, a €20 000 impact‑campaign grant presented by Think‑Film Impact Production. 

 

(fiction) 

Director: Kosara Mitić 

Producer: Tomi Salkovski 

Production Company: Black Cat Production 

Coproduction Companies: Art&Popcorn, December 

Countries: North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia 

 

After having threesome with her classmates, Sara (17) gets pregnant and tries to hide it from everyone, which becomes especially difficult during the graduation excursion.

ALKEBULAN 

(fiction/documentary)  

 Director: Yassine Marco Marroccu 

Producer: Andrea Taschler 

Production Companies: Mirage Film 

Co-production Company: Eclipse Films 

Countries: Morocco, Hungary, Qatar 

 

An odyssey to rescue a sacred amulet from a ship wrecked at the coastline of the Atlantic Sahara during the turbulent wake of African independence.

BLUE BIRD 

(fiction) 

Director: Ahmet Sönmez 

Producer: Ahmet Sönmez 

Production Company: MovieTime Production 

Country: Türkiye 

 

In 1950s Türkiye, a crumbling blue bus (Blue Bird) carries strangers from a forgotten town to the train station, unveiling quiet sorrows, hidden pasts and difference between reality and truth.

EVERYTHING THAT’S WRONG WITH YOU 

(fiction) 

Director: Urša Menart 

Producers: Katja Lenarčič, Danijel Hočevar 

Production Company: Vertigo Ljubljana  

Co-production Companies: Chromosom Film, Living Pictures 

Countries: Slovenia, Germany, Serbia 

 

Maruša connects with Alja online, who works abroad as a nurse. They bond immediately. When Alja falls ill, Maruša travels to Germany to help, only to discover that not everything is as it seems.

THE FORBIDDEN AUNT 

(documentary) 

 Director: Bojana Novaković  

Producer: Bojana Novaković, Sonja Božić, Milan Stojanović  

Production Company: Sense Production 

Country: Serbia

Bojana Novaković films a documentary about her mysterious aunt in rural Serbia, uncovering family secrets & confronting her own past in a darkly comedic, multi-generational portrait of women and trauma.

LOOPING 

(fiction) 

 Director: Antonio Nuić 

Producers: Lana Matić, Boris T. Matić 

Production Company: Propeler Film 

Co-production Company: Moses Film 

Countries: Croatia, Türkiye 

 

A man adrift in time and space returns nightly to the same bar, trapped in grief, memory, and habit.

MONUMENT 

(fiction)  

 Director: Bojan Bodružić 

Producers: Bojan Bodružić, Igor Drljača, Adis Đapo, Amra Bakšić Čamo 

Production Companies: SCCA/pro.ba, Japanese Polka Dancing Films 

Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada 

 

A music professor returns to Istria to bury his grandfather, sparking a reunion with wartime friends and a confrontation with buried traumas, lost love, and family ties to WWII.

SILENCE IS THE ENEMY OF THE SEA 

(experimental / documentary)

Directors: Evgeny Rodin, Dina Karaman  

Producers: Vladimir Nadein, Anton Kurilchik, Mina Seyid-Mammadova, Evgeny Rodin 

Production Companies: Dénapá  

Co-production Company: Jol Filmproduktion, Mandarin Production 

Countries: France, Azerbaijan, Austria 

 

Nothing but the sea is visible from the barred windows of a large house. The inhabitants are lulled by marine songs broadcast day and night, so they never notice their confinement.

WHERE TO? 

(fiction)
Director: Assaf Machnes 

Producer: Tomer Mecklberg, Haim Mecklberg, Oren Rogovin, Mohamad Babi 

Production Company: 2 Team Productions 

Co-Production Companies: Lev Cinema, Rogovin Brothers, Iconoclast Germany 

Country: Israel, Germany 

Logline: The different taxi rides across the city of Berlin between Hassan, a middle aged Palestinian Uber driver, and young Israeli who gets lost in the city, tell a tragic-comic story about moving forward.

WHO ARE WE 

(fiction)
Director: Miroslav Terzić 

Producer: Snežana van Houwelingen 

Production Company: This and That Productions 

Co-Production Companies: Nightswim, Invictus, PTD, Kinorama 

Countries: Serbia, Italy, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Croatia 

 

After a pupil’s suicide, a school trip exposes the haunting path to tragedy. As the journey unfolds, the bullies are the same, the victims are new, and the shadow of the dead pupil looms over them all. 

YESTERDAY THE EYE DIDN’T SLEEP 

(fiction) 
Director: Rakan Mayasi 

Producer: Jennifer Ritter, Rakan Mayasi 

Production Company: Atata 

Countries: Belgium, Palestine, Lebanon 

 

In a valley veiled by fog and tribal codes, two sisters walk into the night not as daughters, but as offerings — where blood, memory, and silence attempt to keep the fire from spreading. 

The 31st Sarajevo Film Festival will be held from the 15th to the 22nd of August 2025.