The 29th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival opens August 11 with the feature doc Kiss The Future directed by Nenad Čičin-Šain (The Time Being) and written by Čičin-Šain and Bill Carter (Miss Sarajevo).
Kiss The Future chronicles the struggle of the citizens of Sarajevo during the city’s siege as the Bosnian War raged, and the post-war concert in which U2 performed in front of more than 45,000 fans within the newly liberated city. “This concert is still a collective memory for the people of Sarajevo, as proof that they not only survived the siege, but also that in the midst of the horrors produced by the darkest impulses, music and art can be acts of rebellion and resistance,” the filmmakers say.
Documentary Competition
Twenty films are selected for 29th Sarajevo Film Festival Documentary Competition. The selection, overseen by Rada Šešić, features nine world, one international, seven regional and three B&H premieres. Two hundred and thirty five documentaries were submitted for consideration.
The Sarajevo Film Festival Documentary Competition presents films and filmmakers from Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Türkiye and Ukraine.
Docmakers will compete for the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Film, valued at €4,000 and sponsored by the Government of Switzerland; the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Short Documentary Film (€2,000); the Human Rights Award, valued at €3,000 and sponsored by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and a Special Jury Prize, valued at €2,500.
“This year I was delighted by the authors who managed to transpose individual reminiscences, personal records and memories into the collective one, and thus raise the meaning of individual, empirical and experiential to the level of the universal,” comments Rada Šešić about this year’s selection.
Dealing with the Past
The Dealing with the Past programme of the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival will present authors who found fame with films about real events, as well as new authors who question the position of individuals whose lives have been marked by trauma from the recent past. The programme includes documentary and fictional works.
Organisers further describe the programme as “an additional platform for testimonies and stories that can serve as a base for developing film scripts, projects and films. The aim of the program is to initiate dialogue in the countries formed from the disintegration of former Yugoslavia and to deal with problems arising as a result of the wars in the region. As part of the “Dealing with the Past” programme, the True Stories Market was launched, the purpose of which is the presentation of stories and collected materials (personal testimonies).”
Two films in this year’s programme, Mamula All Inclusive by Aleksandar Reljić and War Souvenirs by Georg Zeller, will have their world premieres at the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, and both are based on stories that were presented as part of the previous editions of True Stories Market.
Kinoscope 2023
This year’s Kinoscope programme is broken into three parts. “Kinoscope Real, which tackles our reality either through fiction or documentary; Kinoscope, in which we present the arthouse films we deem most impressive from the current year; and Kinoscope Surreal, where we show genre films with distinctive original narrative and stylistic elements“, said Mathilde Henrot and Alessandro Raja, programmers of the Kinoscope programme. The documentaries selected for Kinoscope Real are some of the most highly lauded of the past 12 months and include Danish Lea Glob’s Apolonia Apolonia, Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters and Paul B. Preciado’s Orlando – My Political Biography.
CINELINK INDUSTRY DAYS
CineLink Industry Days is the industry hub of the Sarajevo Film Festival which serves as a central meeting point for film professionals in Southeast Europe. The event has played a vital role over past years in fostering cinematic co-production in the region, both in the documentary and fiction sectors.
Docu Rough Cut Boutique
Docu Rough Cut Boutique is a regional platform dedicated to documentary projects in the advanced phase of the editing process, organised by Sarajevo Film Festival and Balkan Documentary Center. The programme is organised in three modules: Budapest, Sofia, and Sarajevo. This new set-up brings a greater opportunity to participants to explore their creative possibilities, and to have a longer, more in-depth mentoring process. Five new doc projects will compete for a range of cash and in-kind prizes.
Docu Talents from the East selection 2023
Eight new creative documentary projects from Central and Eastern Europe will be presented during the Docu Talents from the East showcase on August 13. The most promising project will receive the Docu Talent Award, accompanied by a cash prize of $5,000 USD, in co-operation with Current Time TV. The DAFilms.com Distribution Award will cover services valued at €3000 and includes international VOD release on DAFilms.com for two years.
Comments Marek Hovorka, director of the Ji.hlava IDFF: “One for all, or one against all? The protagonists of the presented films are exploring their family roots and cultural background, striving for a fairer and more open world, and trying to secure their own place in it – often in spite of global and political influences. The films…closely and often mercilessly depict the world in which we live and which we are shaping together. In line with tradition, Docu Talents from the East presents formally diverse and thematically significant documentary films at the completion stage made by prominent filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe.”
CineLink Work in Progress
CineLink Work in Progress is a showcase of 12 films (two feature docs films and 10 feature-length fictions) at production or post-production stage from Southeast Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The projects are presented to high-profile industry professionals (funders, sales agents, distributors, broadcasters and festival programmers) with the aim of assisting their completion and enhancing their distribution possibilities. Top prize is the Turkish National Radio Television Award, valued at €25,000.
Cinelink Talks
Documentary highlights of CineLink Talks, the conference component of Industry Days, include a panel entitled Shaping Change: Unleashing the Transformative Power of Impact Producing and Outreach in Documentary Filmmaking (August 13). Panelists will explain how, ‘in the contemporary film landscape, filmmakers are embracing impact thinking and incorporating purposeful actions within their productions to effectively engage and mobilize audiences for positive change.’
August 14 sees a panel titled Decoding the Documentary Industry: What Decision Makers are Looking For which will attempt to “demystify the documentary industry by shedding light on the perspectives of decision makers when selecting documentary films.’
Also on August 14 Noise Film & TV’s Mirjam Wiekenkamp will engage in insightful chat on PR campaigns in the European film industry and will describe the intricate relationships between publicists and filmmakers.
