Objave

Network of the Festivals in the Adriatic Region Programmes

The Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region is a collaborative platform that brings together six prominent film festivals from Southeast Europe: Sarajevo Film Festival, Zagreb Film Festival, Auteur Film Festival (Belgrade), Ljubljana International Film Festival, Montenegro Film Festival, and, most recently, the Manaki Brothers International Cinematographers’ Film Festival in North Macedonia.

Since its founding in 2020, the Network has worked to strengthen regional cooperation, promote shared cinematic values, and increase the visibility and circulation of outstanding European films across the Adriatic region. Through joint programmes, curated selections, and shared awards, the Network fosters audience development, supports regional talent, and amplifies the cultural impact of its member festivals.

This year, the Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region will showcase a total of seven films across its joint programmes: one title in the Yugoslav Classics selection, one in the Ecoscope section, and five films competing for the Adriatic Audience Award - a €5,000 prize supporting the regional distribution of the winning title, selected through the combined votes of audiences at all six member festivals. The selected films originate from European countries with mid-level production capacities and were carefully curated to highlight new artistic voices and bold storytelling, while offering narratives that resonate with a broad and diverse audience.

ADRIATIC AUDIENCE AWARD

ADAM'S SAKE / L'INTÉRÊT D'ADAM 
Belgium, France, 2025, 75 min.
Director: Laura Wandel
Cast: Léa Drucker, Anamaria Vartolomei, Jules Delsart, Alex Descas

Following a court ruling, four-year-old Adam is hospitalised for malnutrition. Lucy, the head nurse, allows Adam’s mother to remain with him in the hospital past the court-mandated visiting hours. Complications ensue when the mother, once again, refuses to leave her son’s bedside. For the sake of the child, Lucy will do anything to help this mother in distress.

CHRISTY
Ireland, United Kingdom, 2025, 94 min.
Director: Brendan Canty
Cast: Danny Power, Diarmuid Noyes, Emma Willis, Cara Cullen, Helen Behan

Seventeen-year-old Christy is at a crossroads. He's just been thrown out of his pleasant suburban foster home and has moved in with his estranged older brother Shane. As far as Shane is concerned, this is a temporary arrangement, but Christy begins to feel at home on the working-class north side of Cork. Shane wants something better for Christy - even if it means he has to push him away.

MALDOROR
Belgium, France, 2024, 155 min.
Director: Fabrice du Welz
Cast: Anthony Bajon, Alba Gaïa Bellugi, Alexis Manenti, Sergi López, Laurent Lucas

When two girls go missing, Paul Chartier, an impulsive young police recruit, is assigned to Maldoror: a secret unit that has been set up to monitor a dangerous sex offender. When the operation fails, fed up with the limits of the legal system, Paul embarks on a solitary mission to bring down the culprits.

PERLA
Austria, Slovakia, 2025, 110 min.
Director: Alexandra Makarová
Cast: Rebeka Poláková, Simon Schwarz, Noël Czuczor, Carmen Diego, Hilde Dalik

In Vienna in 1981, Perla, an exiled artist and single mother, struggles to support her daughter, Julia, who is a talented young pianist. When Julia’s father claims to be seriously ill, Perla makes the dangerous journey back to communist Czechoslovakia, only to discover that he wants to force his way back into their lives. Pulled between past and present, Perla begins making reckless choices that jeopardise her future with her daughter.

RENOVATION / RENOVACIJA
Lithuania, Latvia, Belgium, 2025, 90 min.
Director: Gabrielė Urbonaitė
Cast: Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė, Šarūnas Zenkevičius, Roman Lutskyi

Present-day Vilnius. Ilona, a 29-year-old perfectionist, feels the pressure to be settled and successful by the time she turns thirty. At this turning point in her life, she begins to question how she truly wants to live. She moves into a seemingly perfect apartment with her boyfriend Matas, with whom things are getting serious. But as renovation of the building begins, it's not just cracks in the walls that are revealed - Ilona’s inner doubts also start to surface.

ECOSCOPE IN COLLABORATION WITH GREEN VISIONS FILM FESTIVAL POTSDAM

MIYAZAKI: SPIRIT OF NATURE / MIYAZAKI, L’ESPRIT DE LA NATURE
France, 2024, 84 min.
Director: Léo Favier

MIYAZAKI, SPIRIT OF NATURE is the first documentary to focus on Academy Award® winner Hayao Miyazaki’s deep connection to nature and the environmental themes expressed through his films. Through iconic characters such as Totoro and Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki’s often autobiographical films reflect his deep concerns about the world and echo the upheavals of the twentieth century.

YUGOSLAV CLASSICS

BOOM TOWN / UZAVRELI GRAD
Yugoslavia, 1961, 117 min.
Director: Veljko Bulajić
Cast: Ilija Džuvalekovski, Velimir Bata Živojinović, Olivera Marković, Dragomir Felba, Milena Dravić, Nikola Privora, Zaim Muzaferija, Miloš Kandić

Farmers and their families, engineers, technicians, criminals, and prostitutes from across Yugoslavia have converged in Zenica to help build industrial facilities in the town. Siba, a construction site manager, revolutionary, and builder dedicated to the idea of progress, senses their needs and preoccupations, and wants to help them. He works with commitment and dedication that go beyond the demands of his job. It is difficult to achieve all the goals and satisfy all the needs, especially in such a boom town. Guided by his desire to achieve the impossible, Siba makes mistakes.

The 31st Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from August 15 to 22, 2025.