Sarajevo 2025

Ji.hlava IDFF has unveiled the seven projects that will be presented at the 21st edition of Docu Talents from the East 2025, taking place at the Sarajevo Film Festival on August 17. Since 2005, Docu Talents has been a core industry event attended by festival advisors, distributors, buyers, and international journalists, showcasing some of the best documentary projects from the region.

Three documentary projects are selected within this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival CineLink Work-in-Progress programme that showcases “the most compelling new features emerging from Southeast Europe and the MENA region.” New prizes include the HBO Award (€30 000 cash) and the Avanpost Media Award (€30 000 in kind). The 31st Sarajevo FF will be held 15 to 22 August 2025.

The programme includes 12 feature-length and 8 short documentary films. “More than half of the titles in this year's programme reflect the need to reconceptualize human relationships as a particularly necessary value,” says Sarajevo doc programmer Rada Šešić. “It is interesting that in most films in these gloomy times, or precisely because of this, the authors celebrate the power of love as the strongest driver of life, whether they are family or war stories.” he 31st Sarajevo FF runs August 15 to 22.

Docu Rough Cut Boutique describes itself as “the leading regional programme for documentaries in post-production coming from Southeast Europe and the Caucuses, famous for its boutique format of only five selected projects.” Created by the Sarajevo Film Festival and Balkan Documentary Center, the programme is organized in three working modules: Sofia (March 2025), Cluj (June 2025) and Sarajevo (August 2025).