Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Industry Days is positioning itself as a year-round development platform for Southeast European filmmakers, rather than simply a marketplace for projects. Its organisers say the strand helps talent at different career stages build skills, make connections and adapt to rapid changes in film and television, making it an important launchpad for work from the Balkans.

This year’s programme, running from 14 to 21 August, will focus on improving the region’s ability to develop intellectual property, adaptations and formats that can travel internationally. Activities include a microdrama initiative bringing established and emerging creatives together, panels on short-form public-service content and socially valuable television, an expanded CineLink Books section incorporating two theatre plays, and projects seeking regional production services.