Sarajevo Film Festival Boss Jovan Marjanović on Owning Its Powerful Origin Story: “We Connect This Legacy of War… and Build Bridges”
Sarajevo Film Festival director Jovan Marjanović says the event’s identity remains shaped by its founding during the 1995 siege of Sarajevo, when cinema became a form of cultural resistance and connection with the outside world. As the festival enters its 32nd edition, he argues that this legacy still matters because it helps the event promote regional filmmakers, build international links and use film to bridge divided communities.
The festival runs from 14 to 21 August and will be led by a jury chaired by British actor Emily Watson, who will also receive an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo. Other honorary recipients include Asghar Farhadi, Diego Luna and Woody Harrelson, while the programme combines regional competition titles with higher-profile films including Paweł Pawlikowski’s *Fatherland*, Diego Luna’s *Ashes* and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s *Minotaur*. Its closing programme will honour the festival’s history with a restored screening of Oscar-winning *No Man’s Land* and a showing of Harrelson’s *Welcome to Sarajevo*.
- Sarajevo Film Festival continues to draw strength from its wartime origins.
- Its 32nd edition balances regional cinema with major international films.
- Emily Watson will chair the jury and receive an honorary award.
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Sarajevo Film Festival is a major film event in Bosnia and Herzegovina, bringing together filmmakers and audiences from south-east Europe and beyond. It was founded in 1995, during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian war, when the city was cut off and repeatedly attacked.
The festival began as a way of maintaining cultural life and connecting Sarajevo with the outside world despite the conflict. Since the war ended, it has grown into a platform for films from the region, which includes countries shaped by the break-up of former Yugoslavia.
Its history remains central to how organisers describe its role today. They see cinema as a means of supporting local creative work, encouraging international cooperation and bringing people from communities with difficult recent histories into contact with one another.