Gus Van Sant to teach in Sarajevo

Good Will Hunting director Gus Van Sant is to run a two week workshop with students of the Film.Factory, a PhD level programme at Sarajevo University’s Film Academy, established by Hungarian director Bela Tarr.

 New programmes will also be developed for the academy’s BA and MA levels to create an international film school offering all three levels of academic study.

Candidates will be able to apply for the academic year 2013/14 by visiting the Sarajevo Film Academy website from May 15.

Tarr, best known for Werckmeister Harmonies and The Turin Horse, said: “After three months of work, and a year developing this idea, this vision of gathering young filmmakers from all corners of the world and letting them explore their talent with absolute freedom, while giving them the opportunity to work together with some of the most accomplished and exciting film authors, theorists and artists, is becoming more are more real.

“Now we feel brave enough to expand and from September of this year also welcome candidates for BA and MA level and in this way create a real film community that interacts accross levels and hopefully results in new voices that will shape the future of cinema.”

Set to arrive next week are Carlos Reygadas, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Manuel Grosso, while the semester’s closing lectures will be delivered by Tilda Swinton.

Confirmed upcoming lecturers include Kirill Razlogov, Jytte Jensen, Jim Jarmusch, Atom Egoyan and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Van Sant added: “We strongy feel that we are creating a place where students are given the incentive and the opportunity to create throughout their study, as well as to learn and think about film.

“It is this accent on practical work and the opportunity to collaborate with experienced filmmakers while creating their work, that is the main advantage for your filmmakers coming to the Sarajevo Film Academy and the factory.”