Featuring Five World Premieres

Sarajevo Film Festival Reveals Lineup for 30th Edition, Featuring Five World Premieres

The Sarajevo Film Festival has announced its lineup for the 30th edition, taking place from August 16-23. This year’s festival features four competition sections, including five world premieres among the feature films.

In the Feature Film Competition, eight films will compete, including the world premiere of Vuk Rsumovic’s Dwelling Among The Gods. The film tells the story of a young Afghan migrant woman in Belgrade who learns that her brother has drowned and decides to bury him under her full name. This film is a co-production between Serbia’s BaBoon Production, Croatia’s Kinorama, and Italy’s Nightswim.

Additionally, Mirjana Karanovic’s Mother Mara will have its world premiere out of competition. It explores a woman’s journey to cope with the loss of her only son through a relationship with a younger man.

The Documentary Film programme includes 21 titles, with 13 being feature-length films. Two of these are world premieres: Lesia Diak’s Dad’s Lullaby, which won the Docu Talent Award at the 2022 Sarajevo CineLink Industry Days, and Anna Rubi’s Your Life Without Me, which focuses on elderly caregivers in Hungary fighting for their disabled children.

This year, the festival received 940 submissions, a slight increase from last year, including 190 fiction features and 280 documentary features. Fifteen additional films for the In Focus and Open Air programmes will be announced in the coming weeks.

Elma Tataragic, programmer of the feature film competition, described the selection as a “polyphony of different and diverse perspectives on war, history, love, betrayal, and the human need for belonging.”

The Sarajevo Competition programme features films from countries including Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Festival director Jovan Marjanovic highlighted the festival’s role in providing insight into these often-overlooked regions.

Paul Schrader will chair the five-person feature film jury, while the documentary film jury includes Mandy Chang, founder of Undeniable, Marek Hovorka, founder and director of Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, and Chinese filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai.

The festival will open with the world premiere of Danis Tanovic’s My Late Summer.

Sarajevo 2024 Lineup

Feature Competition:

Dwelling Among The Gods (Ser-It-Cro) dir. Vuk Rsumovic
Family Therapy (Slovenia-It-Cro-Nor-Ser) dir. Sonja Prosenc
Arcadia (Gr-Bul) dir. Yorgos Zois
Holy Week (Rom-Switz) dir. Andrei Cohn
The Editorial Office (Ukr-Ger-Slovakia-Czechia) dir. Roman Bondarchuk
The Village Next To Paradise (Austria-Fr-Ger-Som) dir. Mo Harawe
Three Kilometres To The End Of The World (Rom) dir. Emanuel Parvu
Holy Electricity (Geo-Neth) dir. Tato Koteshivili
Mother Mara (Ser-Slovenia-Switz-Mont-Bos&Her) dir. Mirjana Karanovic – Out of Competition

Documentary Competition:

Dad’s Lullaby (Ukr-Rom-Cro) dir. Lesia Diak
Your Life Without Me (Hun-Swe) dir. Anna Rubi
Loxy (Gr) dirs. Dimitris Zahos, Thanasis Kafetzis
Our Children (Cro) dir. Silvestar Kolbas
Alice On & Off (Rom) dir. Isabela Tent
A Picture To Remember (Ukr-Fr-Ger) dir. Olga Chernykh
Cent’anni (Slovenia-It-Pol-Ser-Austria) dir. Maja Prelog
Fragments Of Ice (Ukr-Nor) dir. Maria Stoianova
…Ned, Tassot, Yossot (Austria) dir. Brigitte Welch
Pavilion 6 (Cro) dir. Goran Devic
At The Door Of The House Who Will Come Knocking (Ser-Bos&Her-Bel) dir. Maja Novakovic
Praslovan (Slovenia-Cro) dir. Slobodan Maksimovic – Out of Competition
Bekim Fehmiu (Alb) dir. Valmir Tertini – Out of Competition