Festival In Focus: Sarajevo Continues To Beat The Drum For Southeast European Cinema Amid A “Record Year” Of Submissions

deadline.com:

The Sarajevo Film Festival has long been the biggest showcase of Southeast European cinema and this year’s edition, which unspools on August 11, is on course to be its most reflective and regionally focused edition yet.  “Our manifesto has always been to support young filmmakers and productions from the region while rebuilding an international film industry around it and this year our aim is to strengthen that even further,” says festival director Jovan Marjanović, who is currently in his second year in the role after taking over from festival founder Mirsad Purivatra, who started the event in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War.

This year’s official selection will see 49 films compete for Heart of Sarajevo awards across its four competition sections – feature, documentary, short and student film – and included in this are 22 world, two international, 22 regional and three national premieres.

Films in the official line-up include Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry from director Elene Naveriani, Ukraine title La Palisiada and the world premiere of Greek entry Medium, from director Christina Iaokeimidi.  “I think it was a good year for us because we had a lot of films to choose from,” says Marjanović of the 935 films that were submitted for consideration this year, a 25% uptick from last year’s submissions. “It was probably a bit of a backlog from during the Covid era that has now resulted in a lot of films, but it was a record year in terms of submissions.”   For Marjanović, its more important than ever that Sarajevo remains a festival that beats the drum for its local producers who often don’t get recognition on the global film stage compared to their Western and Central