Festival director Mirsad Purivatra says “quality over quantity” in the programme has led to a boost in figures.
The Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 14-22) generated 10% more box office than last year’s 20th anniversary edition, according to preliminary figures revealed to ScreenDaily by festival director Mirsad Purivatra.
“We still have some calculations to make but the results are really positive and we estimate our box office is up by 10%,” said Purivatra, one of the founders who created the festival near the end of the Bosnian War in 1995 while the city was still under siege.
The festival has grown from an attendance of 15,000 back then to more than 100,000 cinemagoers and film professionals.
This year’s 21st edition wrapped on Saturday night (Aug 22) with Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang winning Best Feature Film and Dagur Kári’s Virgin Mountain screened as the closing feature.
During screenings at venues across the city that included an impressive 3,000 capacity open air theatre, cinemagoers were seen sitting on the aisles or standing on the fringes to catch films including Woody Allen’s Irrational Man and drama A Perfect Day, introduced by star Benicio Del Toro who also picked up the festival’s honorary Heart of Sarajevo award.
Other titles included Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Dheepan, Jafar Panahi’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Taxi and László Nemes’ Cannes prize-winner Son Of Saul.
Purivatra puts the boost in box office down to a strong line-up of titles. “There is a definite reason for the increase - programming,” said the festival director.
“Generally, it has been a great year for film so we have been able to focus on quality over quantity. Since our last festival, production globally has been strong.”
Purivatra also said the region had experienced “a fantastic year for film” and that the “competition had the best quality ever”.
The 10 competition titles included the world premiere of Ines Tanović’s Our Everyday Life, which has been submitted by Bosnia for the Oscars.
Looking to the future, Purivatra said: “Over the next three to four years we will continue fine-tune the festival and further develop Sarajevo as the main meeting place for south eastern Europe film professionals and as a meeting place between regional and European filmmakers and professionals. That’s the main aim.
“I’m sure the coming years will see us continue to focus on quality over quantity and to see how we can be a more efficient and useful platform for development of the film industry in the region.”
Dates for the 22nd Sarajevo Film Festival have been set for Aug 12-20.
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