How Sarajevo Courts Key Decision-Makers and Nurtures New Voices to Remain the Top Talent Incubator in the Balkan Region

Jessica Kiang The term “coming of age” is misleading, implying “age” is some far-off looming entity that you can see approaching and prepare for accordingly. Really, growing up is experienced in milestones you seldom even notice until they’re long in the rearview and you’re busy being disappointed by how un-green the grass of adulthood really is.

Christopher Vourlias Receiving a lifetime achievement award this week at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Scottish director Lynne Ramsay teased a slew of projects currently in the pipeline, heralding her much-anticipated return to the director’s chair since wowing Cannes in 2017 with the Joaquin Phoenix-starring thriller “You Were Never Really Here.” Among them are a second collaboration with Phoenix, who earned best actor honors on the Croisette for that performance, as well as “Stone Mattress,” a revenge thriller set aboard a luxury Arctic cruise that stars Julianne Moore and Sandra Oh. There’s also “Die, My Love,” starring Jennifer Lawrence, which is based on the novel by Argentinian writer Ariana Harwicz about a woman living in isolation in rural France who loses her mind amid marriage and motherhood.

Georgian filmmaker Elene Naveriani clinched the Best Feature Award in the main international competition of the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival with her latest pic Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry. The award comes with a €16,000 cash prize.

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry” won the top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo Award for best feature film, Friday at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The Georgian film, in which a stoically independent woman in her late 40s experiences a gentle existential awakening during an affair with a local deliveryman, also won the best actress prize for Ekaterine Chavleishvili’s performance.

Tara Karajica The idea for “My Mother, the Monster,” which won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Co-Production Market Thursday, came to Hungarian director Olivér Rudolf three years ago after seeing a picture of a woman walking in a dark forest in the middle of the night and wearing a scary monster mask. “There was a tension between this harsh mask and the vulnerability of the person wearing it, so I wanted to find out who was behind that mask and examine more the mother [underneath it],” he says.

Christopher Vourlias Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Bondarchuk is winding down post-production on his latest feature film, “The Editorial Office,” a dramedy set on the eve of the Russian invasion. It’s among the works in progress being presented this week at CineLink Industry Days, the industry arm of the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart bringing you another dose of this here weekly roundup. We’ll be taking a break next week for the August bank holiday but will be back in your inboxes in a fortnight for the new term. In the meantime, sign up here.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Olivér Rudolf’s “My Mother, the Monster” has won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink, its industry section that featured projects from Southeast Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Hungarian feature film project, which is produced by Genovéva Petrovits at Kino Alfa, received a cash prize of €20,000 ($21,727). The film focuses on Éva, a mother in her forties who is disappointed with her life and tired of feeling insignificant.

Christopher Vourlias A World War II drama that critics say glorifies Serbian nationalist groups has sparked outrage at the Sarajevo Film Festival, with organizers under fire for allowing excerpts of the forthcoming film to screen and the mayor of Sarajevo demanding resignations in the ensuing dust-up. On Wednesday, the Sarajevo fest fought back, insisting that it was caught off-guard by the film’s inclusion at an industry event on Tuesday.

Tara Karajica Documentary filmmakers were reminded of the importance of storytelling during a panel discussion about their craft as part of the Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry program Cinelink earlier this week. “It’s about telling the story. It doesn’t have to be a complex story.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Sarajevo Film Festival has modified its scheduled activities on Wednesday after the Bosnia and Herzegovina government declared it to be a “Day of Mourning” following three murders committed in Gradačac on Friday. The perpetrator, a bodybuilder, reportedly livestreamed the murder of his first victim, his former wife, on Instagram.

The Sarajevo Film Festival has canceled all social events and will halt red-carpet coverage set for tomorrow (Aug 16) to observe Bosnia’s national day of mourning following a high-profile triple murder-suicide in the country’s Northeastern region.

Christopher Vourlias To step inside Sarajevo’s Apollo cinema 30 years ago, you first had to find the door. The streets of the Bosnian capital were pitch black. Power cuts brought on by a crippling siege, which started in 1992 when Bosnian Serb forces surrounded the city, left the town plunged in darkness.

Sporting a grey WGA-branded “strike” t-shirt, writer-director Charlie Kaufman led a packed-out masterclass this morning in the main hall of the Bosnian Cultural Center at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “The Hollow” won the Heart of Sarajevo Award for best TV drama series at the Sarajevo Film Festival on Sunday, and also came away with a host of other awards. The in-competition series came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Slovenia.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The jury for the Docu Talents From the East Award, presented Sunday as part of CineLink Industry Days at the Sarajevo Film Festival, split the award between two projects: “A Picture to Remember” by Ukrainian director Olga Chernykh and producer Regina Maryanovska-Davidzon, and the Czech-Slovak co-production “Chronicle” by Martin Kollar. The award comes with a cash prize of $5,000. Eight documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe, planned for theatrical release during the next 12 months, were presented in the program, which is curated by the Ji.hlava Intl.

The Heart of Sarajevo awards for TV series, the Sarajevo Film Festival’s awards strand for TV shows, unraveled this evening, and they were dominated by two shows, the Serbian comedy Mom and Dad Are Playing War 2 (Tata Se Igraju Rata 2) and the Bosnian drama The Hollow (Kotlina).

Tara Karajica In her sophomore feature, contemporary fairytale “Rift in the Ice,” Serbian director Maja Miloš revisits the underbelly of Serbian society and explores women’s integrity and sexuality in the harsh reality of contemporary Serbia. The film is a co-production between Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Netherlands and Montenegro, and features in the works-in-progress section of Cinelink, the Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry program. It is hoping to woo partners and funds for completion.

Bono surprised attendees at the Sarajevo Film Festival in Bosnia with an a cappella rendition of Bob Marley‘s ‘Redemption Song’ – watch the moment below.The frontman and The Edge were present at the film festival for a special screening of U2‘s Kiss The Future documentary when the legendary Irish vocalist hopped on the mic to serenade the crowd.Fans quickly joined in to sing along to the track after Bono unexpected belted out the opening lines to the Bob Marley classic. Watch a clip of the performance below.#Bono & #TheEdge at the #SarajevoFilmFestival for #KissTheFuture: "Redemption Song"Video © @28th_sff"When Bono's voice meets the silver screen.

Christopher Vourlias U2 frontman Bono made a surprise appearance Friday night at the opening ceremony of the Sarajevo Film Festival, with the Irish pop star leading a rapturous crowd in a cappella rendition of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” The legendary vocalist, appearing alongside bandmate the Edge, took the stage after an emotional screening of “Kiss the Future,” director Nenad Cicin-Sain’s documentary, produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, about U2’s relationship with war-torn Sarajevo in the 1990s. Based on American-born aid worker Bill Carter’s “Fools Rush in: A Memoir,” the film chronicles the band’s efforts to publicize the plight of the city’s besieged civilians during the Bosnian War.