For its landmark 30th edition, Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Sarajevo Film Festival is physically growing, taking over new sites in the city’s political, business and retail centre.
Located a 20-minute walk from the festival’s longtime home near Sarajevo’s Old Town, the expansion includes an entirely new industry venue, moving from the Hotel Europe to the Hotel Swissotel, another open-air cinema, an increase to eight in the number of screens at the Sarajevo Cineplexx, and a Festival Garden for socialising and events.
Jovan Marjanovic, heading into his third edition as festival director, says the move will help align the cultural offering with Sarajevo’s other strengths.
“Making a pivot to this part of town, where political, business and retail centres already exist – we hope it becomes the new centre of the city, and the country.”
The festival will maintain its presence near the Old Town, with many guests staying in hotels there including the Hotel Europe and in its popular open-air sites including on the city’s main street.
Marjanovic says the expansion, which has been in the works since 2020, allows the festival to demonstrate its commitment to environmental causes. He has worked with local government to create “more walkable” paths across the city, while the festival now has official partners for both bikes and scooters, and is laying on a shuttle between the two sites, running every 30 minutes throughout the day.
“It’s been a concerted effort for the last couple of years to grow the city and the festival within it and bring things closer with smarter mobility solutions,” says Marjanovic.
Plans are now underway for a multi-functional hall, for cinema, theatre, concerts and events, to be built on what will be the Festival Garden for the next few years.
Tanovic returns
Tradition still holds space at Sarajevo – the festival that began in 1995 during the siege of the city in the Bosnian War, and is now a major cultural event not just in Bosnia but the Southeastern Europe region. Marjanovic himself has been at the festival in various roles since 1999.
Local stalwart Danis Tanovic returns to open the festival today (August 16) for the fifth time with his latest feature My Late Summer, a comedy drama about a woman who heads to a remote island to solve her family inheritance issues. Selecting a Tanovic film is a nod to the local audience – “it’s something that all of the city wants to see,” says Marjanovic, who is also a producer on the film through the Obala Art Centar. “They feel he’s their own filmmaker who speaks to their feelings.”
Marjanovic describes his role on the film as “a minority one”, dealing with crew and financing, with the film shooting in Croatia in summer 2023 and heading into local cinemas shortly after its Sarajevo bow.
The festival has five full-length world premieres in its Competition sections, including Lesia Diak’s documentary competition entry Dad’s Lullaby, about a Ukrainian veteran struggling to bond with his family after returning from the frontline of the war with Russia.
The film won the Docu Talent Award at the 2022 edition of Sarajevo’s CineLink industry platform. Two-and-a-half years since the major Russian invasion of Ukraine, Marjanovic says the best thing the festival can do for the country is give its filmmakers a platform.
“The best thing is to extend our normal activities – whatever we did for filmmakers for other parts of Southeast Europe, we extended to Ukraine two years ago [after the start of the war],” says Marjanovic. “We understand that all of these countries need a focused meeting point. We try to be that for them as much as we can. It’s a big effort to give smaller countries and industries more chances out there.”
Migration
Several festival titles, including Vuk Rsumovic’s feature competition world premiere Dwelling Among The Gods, deal with the topic of migration, which Marjanovic acknowledges as a difficult issue across Europe.
“What cinema can offer is the ability to show us these nuances and add to understanding beyond the 24-hour news cycle and instant world of social media,” he suggests.
Festival guests this year include honourees Meg Ryan, Alexander Payne, John Turturro and Cord Jefferson, plus jury president Paul Schrader, two years after he had to cancel a trip to Sarajevo due to health matters.
Marjanovic is keen to highlight the local talent who will sit beside these US luminaries, including two of Schrader’s jurors, Bosnian filmmaker Una Gunjak and Slovenian actor Sebastian Cavazza.
“Sarajevo has always been a fantastic mix of up-and-coming and established,” says the festival head. “A lot of people that don’t often mix together are here.”
The Sarajevo Film Festival runs from August 16-23.
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