Sarajevo Film Festival Gets Dramatic Facelift for Historic 30th Edition With New Event and Industry Hub: ‘We Are Fully Focused on the Future’
variety.comChristopher Vourlias For a richly pedigreed event that is intimately woven into the fabric of its host city, the Sarajevo Film Festival could be forgiven for resting on its laurels and choosing its 30th edition as an opportunity to look back — to reflect on its storied beginnings during the four-year siege that all but reduced the Bosnian capital to rubble in the early-1990s.
Instead, the organizers are introducing sweeping changes that will alter the look and feel of the event moving forward, with the nucleus of festival activities shifting from its historic home in the heart of Sarajevo’s old town to the modern part of the city.
Festival director Jovan Marjanović, who joined the Sarajevo fest two decades ago as a fresh-faced high-school graduate, tells Variety that while this year’s event will certainly pay homage to the past, festival leadership is “fully focused on the future,” adding: “I think this is setting the course for the next 25, 30 years.” While in years past the hub of industry and social activity during the mid-summer event has centered on a buzzy strip on the fringe of Sarajevo’s Turkish Quarter, from the National Theater and the Bosnian Cultural Center to the historic Hotel Europe, that locus will shift to downtown’s Hotel Holiday and the adjacent Cineplexx Cinemas, an eight-screen multiplex built in 2021.
Across the street, a newly built open-air cinema will also serve as a screening venue, while the nearby Festival Garden — another new edition this year — will host the opening party and function as an event hub throughout the festival, which runs Aug.
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