Sarajevo Work in Progress include Tudor Giurgiu, Emir Baigazin films

The Sarajevo Film Festival has announced seven projects from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Israel, Kazakhstan, Romania, Slovenia and Serbia that have been picked to take part in his year’s CineLink Work in Progress sessions.

CineLink’s Work in Progress sessions (Aug 20-21) present promising films currently in post-production to specially invited decision-makers from the European film industry, interested in engaging in their completion or distribution. 

The line-up consists of six fiction projects, including new films by Romania’s Tudor Giurgiu (Of Snails And Men), Kazakhstan’s Emir Baigazin (Harmony Lessons), Slovenia’s Vlado Škafar (Dad), and the new documentary by Serbia’s Mila Turajlić (Cinema Komunisto), selected from the festival’s documentary workshop Docu Rough Cut Boutique.   

The Work in Progress jury, consisting of Nelleke Driessen, Managing Director, Fortissimo Films; Meinolf Zurhorst, Commissioning Editor ZDF/ARTE; and Tolke Palm, Producer, The Post Republic, will give out two awards to best projects: The Post Republic Award – in kind post production services worth €80,000 ($107,000), and The Restart Award – in kind support worth €20,000 ($27,000).

WORK IN PROGRESS TITLES

Our Everyday Life (Naša svakodnevna priča)
Ines Tanović (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia)

False Witness (Lazhesvidetel)
Iglika Triffonova  (Bulgaria, Netherlands, Sweden)

Mountain (Ha’har)
Yaelle Kayam (Israel, Denmark)

The Wounded Angel  (Raneni Angel)
Emir Baigazin (Kazakhstan, France, Germany)

Why Me? (De ce eu?)
Tudor Giurgiu (Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria)

Mother (Mama)
Vlado Škafar  (Slovenia, Italy)

The Other Side of Everything (Druga strana svega)
Mila Turajlic (Serbia) - documentary

CineLink has also added three guest projects to 14 previously announced titles in its Co-Production Market:

House Without Roof
Soleen Yusef (Kurdistan Regional Government Iraq, Germany) - Project presented in collaboration with Doha Film Institute

Operation: Baby
José Luis Valle  (Mexico) - Project presented in collaboration with IMCINE

To All Naked Men
Bassam Chekhes (Syria, Netherlands) - Project presented in collaboration with The Arab Fund for Arts & Culture 

Avant Premiere

In co-operation with leading distribution and production companies in the region, Sarajevo’s Industry Department is starting a new festival programme, Avant Premiere, a market platform for films from the common-speaking area of the former Yugoslavia, which aims to become the place to set up wider distribution and launch promotional activities for movies which have commercial potential at box offices in the region in the current season of fall/winter.

In this way, the SFF wants to create equal position and status between the distribution of regional movies and Hollywood and European production movies among exhibitors, media and audience.

In the first year in the segment of film market Avant Premiere Trailers, 19 films from the newest regional production (seven from Serbia, four from Croatia, one from Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina each, and four regional co-productions) will be presented to the biggest exhibitor chains and around 30 independent exhibitors from Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia.

These include Cinestar and Cineplexx which together control more than 250 screens in these countries, and the largest distribution companies in the region – Blitz film&video, Continental Film, MegaCom Film and Taramount Film.

In addition to films from the festival’s official selection, such as Andrea Štaka’s Cure – The Life Of Another, Jasmila Žbanić’s Love Island, omnibus film Bridges Of Sarajevo, and Bosnian director Enver Puška’s Nine Positions Of Loneliness, the programme includes two Karlovy Vary titles: Darko Lungulov’s Monument To Michael Jackson and Ivan Ikić’s Barbarians; plus Kristijan Milić’s Number 55, which scooped eight awards at Croatian national Pula Film Festival, including best film, director and screenplay.