Sarajevo Film Festival, with its regular rich and vibrant sections of film competitions, In Focus, Open air, Kinoscope, Summer Screen, Teenarena, Children’s, Tributes programmes, CineLink Industry Days etc., is the most important regional film event and the most creative meeting point for film professionals, never to be missed. Each new edition brings a fresh wave of surprising and pioneering contents with its impressive film programmes, numerous fascinating guests – renowned film figures and talented promising newcomers, alike, including exceptional master-classes by some of the most exciting leading film authors of today and sidebar events, exquisitely combining the impeccable festival professionalism with the city’s cosy and unique ambiance and charming hospitality and generosity of the festival hosts. The opulent offer of enticing cafés (kafići), bars, pattiseries and irresistible ćevabdžinicas (traditional local restaurants), mainly concentrated in picturesque Baš Čarsija, add a special “ćevapi touch” to the Jarmushian coffee and cigarettes package going well with films, especially with films in Sarajevo (and especially for a Turkish/Bosnian coffee lover like me), making it all the more difficult not only to choose which events to follow but also which place to choose for a short refreshment break, the shortness of which is dictated by the huge programme variety, that one becomes almost breathless trying to go and be everywhere, even if most of the venues are practically situated very close to each other, including most hotels.

And this is all set in Sarajevo, the city that, abandoned and neglected by the arrogant international powers and the whole international community, suffered the longest siege in the heart of and before the eyes of Europe, and became the symbol of war resistance and freedom, showing still today signs, architectural and other, of ailments from its recent war history and bringing back haunting memories of monstrous massacres and genocides of its neighbouring towns and villages, but ever flourishing with the invincible and contagious enthusiasm and the famous unmatched humour of its citizens. Such an exciting setting makes the festival all the more special and internationalist, only to prove yet again the famous Langlois’ notion of film as a separate nation, making it a perfect combination for me: my favourite art in my favourite city. The name of the Heart of Sarajevo award couldn’t be better fitted for a city that wore its heart on its sleeve during the war and continues to give it generously in peace.

Honorary Hearts and Dealing with the past: Oliver Stone, John Cleese and Joshua Oppenheimer

Out of 235 films from 54 countries, screened in 18 different programmes, many are in competition sections with separate juries – feature, documentary, short, student etc. This year’s feature competition jury, headed by Michel Franco and composed of Mark Adams, Goran Bogdan, Fatma Al Remaihi and Melisa Sozen had a difficult task of deciding for the best feature film, best director, and best actor and actress Heart of Sarajevo. Documentary film competition includes Heart of Sarajevo for best film, Human rights award and Special jury award, sponsored by Al Jazeera Ballkans. Partners awards comprise Sarajevo short film nominee for the European film awards 2017, EDN talent grant for promising new documentary filmmakers from the region, CICAE (The International Confederation of Art Cinemas) and Cineuropa prize – all awarded films are rewarded financially.

23rd SFF edition was further spiced up by two honorary hearts – for extraordinary contribution to the art of film – to the living legend of comedy John Cleese and the iconic filmmaker, Academy award winner, Oliver Stone. Stone’s award acceptance speech at the open air stage, surrounded by buildings with faded or war torn facades, as a testament to the recent tragic past, couldn’t be a more moving and resonant anti-war statement:

{niftybox background=#dff178, width=360px}OFICIJELNE NAGRADE

TAKMIČARSKI PROGRAM – IGRANI FILM

Žiri:

Michel Franco, reditelj, scenarista, producent (Predsjednik žirija, Meksiko)

Članovi žirija:

Mark Adams, umjetnički direktor EIFF (Velika Britanija)

Goran Bogdan, glumac (Bosna i Hercegovina, Hrvatska)

Fatma Al Remaihi, direktorica Doha Film Instituta (Katar)

Melisa Sözen, glumica (Turska)

SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJI FILM

STRAŠNA MAJKA / SASHISHI DEDA

Gruzija, Estonija

Režija: Ana Urushadze

Producent: Lasha Khalvashi

Novčana nagrada u iznosu od 16.000 €.

SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJEG REDITELJA

EMANUEL PÂRVU

MEDA ILI NE TAKO SJAJNA STRANA STVARI / MEDA SAU PARTEA NU PREA FERICITĂ A LUCRURILOR

Rumunija

Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 10.000 € osigurava Agnes B.

SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE ŽIRIJA

glumački ansambl - PRAVCI / POSOKI

Bugarska, Njemačka, Makedonija

Režija: Stephan Komandarev

SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJU GLUMICU

Ornela Kapetani, BUĐENJE DANA / DITA ZË FILL

Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 2.500 € obezbjeđuje Tondach.

SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJEG GLUMCA

Şerban Pavlu, MEDA ILI NE TAKO SJAJNA STRANA STVARI / MEDA SAU PARTEA NU PREA FERICITĂ A LUCRURILOR

Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 2.500 € obezbjeđuje Tondach.

TAKMIČARSKI PROGRAM – KRATKI FILM

Žiri:

Igor Drljača, reditelj i scenarista (Bosna i Hercegovina, Kanada)

Milica Tomović, rediteljica (Srbija)

Florian Weghorn, voditelj programa Berlinale Talents (Njemačka)

SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJI FILM

U PLAVETNILO

Hrvatska, Slovenija

Režija: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović

Novčana nagrada u iznosu od 2.500 €.

SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE ŽIRIJA

SOA

Crna Gora

Režija: Dušan Kasalica

SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE ŽIRIJA

COPA - LOCA

Grčka

Režija: Christos Massalas

TAKMIČARSKI PROGRAM – STUDENTSKI FILM

Žiri:

Boaz Frankel, reditelj i montažer (Izrael)

Guillaume de Seille, producent (Francuska)

Teona Strugar Mitevska, rediteljica (Makedonija)

SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJI STUDENTSKI FILM

ČISTOĆA

Bosna i Hercegovina

Režija: Neven Samardžić

Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 1.000 € obezbjeđuje Vijeće za regionalnu saradnju.

SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE ŽIRIJA

LJUBLJANA - MUNICH 15:27

Slovenija

Režija: Katarina Morano

TAKMIČARSKI PROGRAM – DOKUMENTARNI FILM

Žiri:

Claas Danielsenglavni izvršni direktor filmskog fonda "Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung GMBH" (MDM) (Njemačka)

Gitte Hansen, zamjenica direktorice filmske kompanije "First Hand Films" zadužena za međunarodnu prodaju i stručne usluge/distribuciju u Švicarskoj (Švicarska)

Želimir Žilnik, reditelj (Srbija)

SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJI DOKUMENTARNI FILM

GRAD SUNCA / MZIS QALAQI

Gruzija, SAD, Katar, Holandija

Režija: Rati Oneli

Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 3.000 € obezbjeđuje Vlada Švicarske.

SPECIJALNA NAGRADA ŽIRIJA

DJECA / KINDERS

Austrija

Režija: Arash T. Riahi, Arman T. Riahi

Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 2.500 € osigurava Al-Jazeera Balkans.

SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE

DOM

Hrvatska, Bosna i Hercegovina

Režija: Zdenko Jurilj

HUMAN RIGHTS NAGRADA

MR. GAY SYRIA

Turska, Francuska, Njemačka

Režija: Ayse Toprak

Nagrada za ljudska prava dodjeljuje se za najbolji film iz Takmičarskog programa – dokumentarni film, koji obrađuje tematiku ljudskih prava. Nagradu u iznosu od 3.000 € obezbjeđuje Vlada Švicarske.

POČASNO SRCE SARAJEVA

John Cleese, glumac

Oliver Stone, reditelj

CINELINK NAGRADE

NAGRADE CINELINK KOPRODUKCIJSKOG MARKETA

Žiri koprodukcijskog marketa:

Uldis Dimisevskis, Georges Goldenstern, Behrooz Hashemian, Čedomir Kolar, Annamaria Lodato, Tomi Salkovski i Jani Thiltges.

EURIMAGES COPRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT NAGRADA

HALF-SISTER

Režija: Damjan Kozole

Scenaristi: Damjan Kozole, Urša Menart

Producent: Danijel Hočevar

Producentska kuća: Vertigo

Slovenija

- 20.000 €{/niftybox}

"I am honored to receive the heart of Sarajevo because I know this city has a heart. You, who know war, remember the legacy of war, its callousness and what it does to people, need to pass it on to new generations. We know the president of my country which, I fear, lost its balance and it's a generation of people who don't remember the pain and tragedy of war. Things are being said publicly which are stupid and dangerous and I am praying that people who have memories can do something to counterbalance this suicidal desire. Our president talks about wars as if it's a game. But remember that, before this president, our country has militarily built up its muscles for 70 years, steroids have made it unrecognisable in its war powers. This is very scary for everybody in the world and we must always be aware of it and we must fight against this desire to build militarily... This is so dangerous. I urge you to, please, remember this. It is in the spirit of peace I accept this heart".

Oliver Stone held two magnificent master classes that seemed as if they could have lasted forever, given the great interest, questions and vibrant discussions with the highly inspired audience, before the screenings of brilliant Snowden (yes, you should see it many times) and provocative Platoon, with screening tributes also of the now anthological Natural born killers and controversial and captivating The Putin Interviews. One could also enjoy a coffee chat with the Minister of Comedy John Cleese, as well as with other numerous guests, at the festival daily regular meeting point “Coffee with…” at the Festival Square.

A very special segment, not surprising in this city and a necessary project in the whole Balkans region, is, self-evidently, named “Dealing with the past”. This year it hosted and paid tribute to an extraordinary truth-seeker documentary filmmaker, Joshua Oppenheimer, with his two astonishing (if one word could describe these painful film voyages into the human soul and the human evil) documentary films, The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, that established him as one of the most brave and thorough contemporary film authors.

His master class was another of those that could go on forever with numerous insightful questions coming from the audience as intellectual bombshells (if only such intellectual experiences could replace the real bomb stuff). During his talk, Oppenheimer, proving to be one of the most patient and kind interlocutors I have witnessed, stressed that "the past is us", evoking W. Faulkner’s "the past is never dead, it's not even past".

For nine years in a row, Sarajevo FF organises Human Rights Day, in cooperation with the Swiss Government, with this year’s topic “Women’s rights today: regression, stagnation or progress”, screening The Divine Order by Petra Volpe, followed by a panel, drawing attention to the widely held myth that the Western world is more progressive when it comes to women’s rights (as a matter of fact, few know that Switzerland, which granted women rights to vote only in 1973, was decades late compared to some under-developed countries, including Yugoslavia, and, while we are on the subject, Saudi Arabia became the last country in the world, except the Vatican City, 42 years later, to grant women this basic right). Outlining both the conservative, patriarchal Swiss society and the emerging emancipation movement across the country, Volpe’s film and the panel afterwards highlight the current backlash against feminism in the Western world and stress the need for more work to be done in this area, as the battle for women’s rights is far from over. After the latest, massively publicised, shocking, outrageous Hollywood scandal, called “Harvey Weinstein’s case of sexual harassments”, it has become clear, unfortunately, that the battle for women’s rights has only begun, particularly concerning sexual harassment in the corporate entertainment industries, now that many famous actresses and stars have finally started talking openly about it.

Dystopian future, bleak reality of the Balkans and changing patriarchal societies

The world premiere that opened the competition feature programme was the much awaited international co-production, The Grain, by Semih Kaplanoglu, the author of extraordinary, now anthological, trilogy Egg, Milk, Honey. This dystopian film, seemingly only a roadie, set in the (not so distant?) future of completely dead lands, devastated by the human doing and genetic modifications of crops, focuses on the scientist working for the state-run corporation, Erol Erin (Jean-Marc Barr), who embarks on his journey of truth-seeking about the dying crops. During his devoted and detailed research, he comes across the name of the “missing’ scientist Dzemal Akman and his visionary “Genetic chaos theory”, and becomes more determined in his endeavours and searches for this forgotten scientist. Shot in black-white, with astonishing photography, the film plot highlights many questions of binaries revolving around human life/corporate power, individual freedom/confining ruling system, human justice/corporate profit, science/religious faith, the dystopian real/myth (to list but a few). These philosophical, ethical and aesthetic questions are left to the viewer alone to find the possible answers.

This year’s best film winner, young Ana Harudze with her debut Scary mother, on the story of the mother of three, rebelling against her family by embarking on a literary career, heralds a new Georgian film wave. A similar topic is explored in another excellent Georgian film screened in In Focus, My happy family, the second feature by the real-life couple Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross, who tackle the middle-age crisis of a woman who leaves her husband and family. Beautifully shot by DoP Tudor Vladimir Panduru (who also worked with Cristian Mungiu on his magnificent Graduation), with the brilliant cast (Ia Shugliashvili, Merab Ninidze, Berta Khapava, to name but a few), this nuanced and touching sociological drama convincingly shows the alienating effects of the constraining patriarchal society.

The award for best director went to Emanuel Parvu, actor-turned-director (actor in Mungiu’s Baccalauerat) for his debut feature world-premiered in Sarajevo, Meda or the not so bright side of things, which, as a harsh crtitique of the local context, with universal overtones, focuses on Doru (brilliantly played by Serban Pavlu) who faces Kafkaesque obstacles in his struggle to keep custody of his daughter, after the death of his wife. Extraordinarily shot, the film efficiently and ruthlessly exposes the everyday life of a Romanian isolated small village with its poverty, corruption, hypocrisy, mediocrity, bribery and ignorance, to convey the touching struggle of one man to just have a decent life and preserve the little dignity left in the life of the Balkans, not just Romanian, human beings.

Special jury prize was given to another film depicting the bleak reality in the Balkans, Bulgarian Directions by Stephane Komandarev. With a documentarist, almost cinema-verité visual approach, this vignette-styled film focuses on EU Bulgaria’s taxi driver’s life, packed with singular and sad stories and adventures as he drives through the streets of Sofia. The protagonists’ despair and bitterness are balanced by satirical black humour (such as excellent one-liner: “I am an optimist, because all pessimists have left the country already”), that could be easily applied to all the countries of the fallen Balkans.

Maja BOGOJEVIĆ

{niftybox background=#dff178, width=360px}MACEDONIAN FILM AGENCY CINELINK NAGRADA

HOLY EMY

Režija: Araceli Lemos

Scenaristi: Araceli Lemos, Gulia Caruso

Producenti: Elina Psykou, Giulia Caruso, Konstantinos Vassilaros

Produkcijska kuća: StudioBauhaus Grčka

- 10.000 €

ARTE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CINELINK NAGRADA

CAT IN THE WALL

Režija: Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova

Scenaristica: Mina Mileva

Producentice: Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova

Producentska kuća: Activist38

Bugarska

- 6.000 €

SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE

THE GREAT TRAM ROBBERY

Režija: Slobodan Šijan

Scenaristi: Slobodan Šijan, Biljana Maksić, Vladimir Mančić

Producent: Marko Paljić

Producentska kuća: Gargantua Films Srbija

MDM EAVE STIPENDIJA

Konstantinos Vassilaros / HOLY EMY

WORK IN PROGRESS NAGRADE

Work In Progress žiri:

Paolo Bertolin, Petra Gobel, Paz Lázaro, Hedi Zardi i Serkan Yildirim.

TRT WORK IN PROGRESS NAGRADA

HONEYLAND

Režija: Ljubo Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska

Producenti: Ljubo Stefanov, Atanas Georgiev

Producentska kuća: Apollo Media, Trice Films

Makedonija

- 30,000 €

POST REPUBLIC NAGRADA

THE DAY AFTER I'M GONE

Režija: Nimrod Eldar

Producent: Eitan Mansuri

Producentska kuća: Spiro Films Ltd

Izrael

- 50.000 € (u uslugama)

RESTART NAGRADA

WHAT COMES AROUND

Režija: Reem Saleh

Producenti: Reem Saleh, Konstantina Stavrianou

Producentska kuća: Mazameer Productions

Libanon / Egipat / Katar

- 20.000 € (u uslugama)

CINELINK DRAMA NAGRADA

CineLink Drama Award žiri:

Meinolf Zurhorst, Tatjana Andersson i Giacomo Durzi.

FILM CENTER SERBIA CINELINK DRAMA NAGRADA

SVI PANTERI SU PINK

Kreatori: Titus Kreyenberg, Miroslav Mogorović

Scenarist: Dimitrije Vojnov

Režija: TBC

Producenti: Titus Kreyenberg, Miroslav Mogorović

Produkcijska kuća: Unafilm, Art & Popcorn

Njemačka, Srbija

- 10.000 €

SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE

GLICERIN

Kreatori: Ivan Knežević, Miloš Pušić

Scenaristi: Ivan Knežević, Miloš Pušić

Režija: Miloš Pušić

Producenti: Ivan Knežević, Miloš Pušić

Produkcijska kuća: Altertise

Srbija

PARTNERSKE NAGRADE 23. SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVALA

NAGRADE UDRUŽENJA FILMSKIH RADNIKA BIH

Nagrada Ivica Matić

Redžinald Šimek

Nagrada Ivica Matić

Tomislav Topić

Nagrada Ivica Matić

Akciona grupa UFRBiH za autorska prava (Pjer Žalica, Jovan Marjanović, Elma Tataragić i Amar Nović)

CINEUROPA NAGRADA

STRAŠNA MAJKA / SASHISHI DEDA

Režija: Ana Urushadze

CICAE NAGRADA

SOFIJIN SIN / O GIOS TIS SOFIAS

Režija: Elina Psykou

THE EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY NETWORK - TALENT GRANT

KADA DOĐU SVINJE / WHEN PIGS COME

Režija: Biljana Tutorov

NOMINACIJA SARAJEVSKOG KANDIDATA ZA EVROPSKU FILMSKU NAGRADU 2017.

COPA-LOCA

Režija: Christos Massalas

BEST PACK & PITCH AWARD (TALENTS SARAJEVO PACK & PITCH)

Sirin

Senad Šahmanović - poziv na učešće na koprodukcijskom marketu CineLink.

Pinkler

Patricia D'Intino

Usluge postprodukcije zvuka u iznosu od 4.000 Eura (studio Chelia)

NAGRADE STUDENTSKOG PROGRAMA BH. FILM

Najbolji film

NADŽIVETI KORNJAČU

Režija: Katarina Živanović

Fakultet dramskih i filmskih umjetnosti Bijeljina

Specijalna nagrada žirija

ČISTOĆA

Režija: Neven Samardžić

Akademija scenskih umjetnosti Sarajevo

Special Mention

ZIMSKO SUNCE

Režija: Pilar Palomero

Sarajevo Film Academy{/niftybox}