City Sarajevo Showbiz Latest News and Updates

A group of film festivals in the former Yugoslavia have teamed to launch an online event that they hope will stimulate the circulation and promotion of independent European film while the pandemic is ongoing.

The 27th Sarajevo Film Festival will pay tribute to German filmmaker Wim Wenders.

Also Read: 'Quo Vadis Aida' Director Jasmila Zbanic Exposes the Bureaucracy of War From a Female Perspective (Video)Written and directed by Zbanic, “Quo Vadis, Aida?” stars Jasna Djuricic and was produced by Sarajevo-based Deblokada, in co-production with coop99 filmproduktion (Austria), Digital Cube (Romania), N279 (Netherlands), Razor Film (Germany), Extreme Emotions (Poland), Indie Prod (France), Torden Film (Norway), TRT (Turkey), ZDF ARTE, ORF and BHRT.Dan O’Meara and Darcy Heusel

direct to your inboxThey brought home an Olympic gold medal 37 years ago, and ice skating legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are continuing to won audiences today on Dancing On Ice.But Jayne, 56, and Christopher, 62, are aware it won’t be long before the pair will have to hang up their skates for good.The pair became instant icons when they won gold at the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- As an independent filmmaker from a country without an established film industry, Bosnia's Jasmila Zbanic said she is used to improvising. That's come in handy this past year, when she was finishing up her latest and most ambitious film, “Quo Vadis, Aida?”, during the pandemic.The film, which has no promotional budget, has generated Oscar buzz anyhow.

BAFTA-winning filmmaker Michael Winterbottom and his Revolution Films production company have signed an exclusive first-look deal with TV giant Fremantle.

Rebecca Davis editorCambodian director Rithy Panh survived the brutal Khmer Rouge regime that took the lives of many of his friends and family.

Ellise Shafer editorDanish actor Mads Mikkelsen — best known for his skillful and distinctly human portrayal of dark characters in films like “The Hunt,” and “Casino Royale” as well as the television series “Hannibal” — trained as a dancer before enrolling in acting classes.“I loved every second of it.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterAfter being forced to pivot entirely online last-minute due to a COVID spike, Bosnia’s Sarajevo Film Festival is coming to a close and has unveiled its prize winners for this year’s edition.A jury chaired by Michel Hazanavicius and featuring Berlinale director Carlo Chatrian, actress Jadranka Đokić, director Srdan Golubović and the Morelia Film Festival’s Andrea Stavenhagen, awarded the festival’s top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo, to Visar Morina’s Exile.

Christopher Vourlias Visar Morina’s “Exile,” a tense psychodrama about a Kosovan pharmacologist in Germany who becomes increasingly paranoid over a series of menacing events, won the top prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival, earning the Kosovo-born German director the Heart of Sarajevo.The award ceremony took place online Thursday night, with Morina winning top honors from a jury led by Academy Award-winning director Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”) and comprised of Carlo Chatrian, artistic

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentMichel Franco’s “New Order,” a Venice Festival main competition premiere, looks set to mark a huge step-up in scale for Franco and indeed most Latin American movies at large.It couldn’t be otherwise, Mexican writer-director-producer Franco said at a Sarajevo Film Festival masterclass, hosted Wednesday in the Variety Streaming Room.Teasing through-lines in a career that has made him one of the most laureled of Latin American directors, Franco also

Christopher Vourlias Seymour Tahirbekov is a reluctant chess star, a young grandmaster from Azerbaijan whose life is rigidly controlled by his emotionally toxic father and coach. On the eve of his showdown with the defending world champion, Seymour’s nerves began to fray, and he escapes to a remote island populated by wild horses and a solitary old man.

Ed Meza @edmezavar“Bad Blood,” an ambitious new Serbian feature film and TV series, has become the first project from the Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Drama co-financing forum to go into production since the event’s establishment in 2016.Set in the Ottoman Empire of the 19th century, “Bad Blood” is based on the works of renowned Serbian writer Borisav Stankovic and a script written by Yugoslav filmmaker Voja Nanovic in the early 1970s while he was living in New York City and working for

Christopher Vourlias When a wolf pack attacks the herd of a shepherd living in the mountainous hinterlands of Anatolia, he vows to get a better gun to protect himself, his sheep and his family: a Mauser, the so-called “king of rifles,” and the most powerful gun of its time. He strikes a bargain with a local dealer who agrees to give him a rifle if he can prove his mettle as a hunter.

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Christopher Vourlias While the murder of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement triggered months of protests in the U.S.

Christopher Vourlias Veena Sud, creator of AMC’s “The Killing” and Netflix’s “Seven Seconds,” says the television industry is ready for “radical, real change,” calling on industry gate-keepers to rethink hiring practices, promote more women and people of color, and address a systematic lack of representation, “and not be in the same place we are now that we were in 30 years ago.”Sud appeared in conversation Monday with producer Paula Vaccaro (“On the Milky Road”) as part of the Sarajevo Film

Eli Countryman French writer, director and producer Michel Hazanavicius discussed his career path and the future of film as part of the 2020 Sarajevo Film Festival masterclass series, hosted in the Variety Streaming Room.Hazanavicius is this year’s jury president for the film festival.

Christopher Vourlias Rome-based Fandango Sales, the sales arm of Domenico Procacci’s production company Fandango, has scooped up world rights, excluding Spain and Andorra, for “Andromeda Galaxy,” the feature directorial debut of Kosovo filmmaker More Raça, which had its world premiere in competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival.“Andromeda Galaxy” tells the story of Shpëtim (Sunaj Raça, the director’s father and the film’s producer), a down-at-the-heels single father struggling to make ends

Ed Meza @edmezavar“Hold Me Right,” a documentary by first-time Serbian director Danijela Stajnfeld, is certain to shake this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival with its exploration of sexual assault and its impact on survivors.Stajnfeld, a celebrated actress in Serbia, left the country for the U.S. a few years ago after she was sexually assaulted by a powerful and well-known industry figure.

Christopher Vourlias The coronavirus pandemic might have offered an unexpected and unwelcome jolt to the movie business in Southeast Europe, but it’s just the latest in a series of disruptions to the industry whose impact will be felt for years to come.Post-COVID planning, emerging VOD platforms, and the global rethink on theatrical release windows were among the topics discussed during “Supply Chain Interrupted: A Regional Perspective,” a panel hosted as part of the Sarajevo Film Festival’s

Christopher Vourlias After tragedy strikes Aliki and her husband Petros, they flee Athens with their young son Panagiotis, seeking refuge in a provincial seaside town. But when Petros finds temporary work as the caretaker of a luxurious villa, the family gradually begins moving in, blurring the line between reality and the fantasy world they increasingly habit.

Alissa Simon Film CriticThe micro-budget feature “Focus, Grandma” from Bosnian helmer-writer Pjer Žalica is a black comedy set in Sarajevo during the spring of 1992, when members of a dysfunctional family are summoned to the bed of their dying matriarch.

Christopher Vourlias Two years ago, Ivana Mikovic—former COO of public broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia—took a look at the booming local TV landscape and saw an opportunity for a bold new venture.

Christopher Vourlias Bosnian director Pjer Žalica recently found himself standing before Sarajevo’s National Theater, which in less troubled times would have hosted the world premiere of his comic drama “Focus, Grandma”—the opening film of the 26th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival. “In front of the theater, there is this red carpet and nothing else,” Žalica told Variety.

Christopher Vourlias For many of the visitors who descended on the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, packing their day planners with meetings at the Gropius Bau and red-carpet premieres at the Berlinale Palast, there was a surreal sense of business as usual.

Christopher Vourlias While the coronavirus pandemic prompted the Sarajevo Film Festival to shift to an online edition just days before opening night, the organizers of CineLink Industry Days—Sarajevo’s buzzy industry confab—were prepared to go virtual from the moment that the virus began sweeping across Europe in March.That means plans have long been in place for an online edition of the CineLink Co-Production Market, which has become one of the leading platforms for projects from Southeast

Christopher Vourlias Otto is a 17-year-old punk rocker who gets wrapped up in an investigation into his girlfriend Laura’s death. Angry and rebellious, he lashes out against his family and neighbors while relentlessly pouring through videos of her, trying to piece together clues about her final days.

Christopher Vourlias When Marina Abramovic left Yugoslavia as a young artist in the 1970s, she could have hardly imagined what the years ahead would bring.

Christopher Vourlias “Do You Remember Dolly Bell?,” the directorial debut of iconic Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica, has joined Heritage Online, the Locarno Film Festival’s recently launched platform for classic movies.Set in Sarajevo in the mid-1960s, the film—an irreverent, coming-of-age story about a young man who falls in love with a prostitute—earned Kusturica the Golden Lion for best first film at the Venice Film Festival in 1981.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorHello International Insider friends, and happy Friday. Jake Kanter with you this week, and here’s everything you need to know about the global film and TV business.

Andreas Wiseman, Tom Grater EXCLUSIVE: Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Van Ditthavong’s feature directorial debut All Roads To Pearla (formerly known as Sleeping In Plastic), which had its world premiere at the 2019 Austin Film Festival.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentDirector Michel Hazanavicius and actress Bérénice Bejo, Oscar winner and Oscar nominee respectively for “The Artist,” will present individual Masterclasses at the 26th Sarajevo Film Festival this year.

Christopher Vourlias For an event that was launched a quarter of a century ago, in the midst of a four-year siege that devastated the city during the Bosnian war, it was perhaps to be expected that this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival would try to forge ahead, even in light of a coronavirus pandemic that has turned the world of red carpets and gala premieres upside-down.But plans for a slimmed-down version of the physical fest were finally scrapped on Aug.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterOrganizers of the Sarajevo Film Fesitval, which was set to be one of the first international film festivals to take place in a meaningful physical form this summer, have made a late decision to shift the event entirely to online after a spike of infections in Bosnia.The fest had been due to take place August 14 – 21 in the Bosnian capital and the team have been bullish for months that it would be able to stage events in person despite widespread

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentThe Sarajevo Film Festival has shifted this year’s edition online, abandoning plans for a mostly physical event, as COVID 19 rates surge in Bosnia.In a statement, the organizers said the decision “confirms the Sarajevo Film Festival’s responsibility and commitment to its community.” The fest will run Aug. 14-21 as planned.The world premiere of “Focus, Grandma,” helmed by Bosnian director Pjer Žalica, opens the festival’s program.