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14th Sarajevo Film FestivalBy Rada Djurica The 14th Sarajevo Film Festival in Bosnia-Herzegovina this year started with a screening of Aida Begic's debut feature Snow, a film about postwar Bosnia, the same movie some might have had the opportunity to see in May in Cannes. Over nine days, the Sarajevo festival — born in a sandbag-protected basement during the Bosnian war — showed 174 movies from 40 countries. The Sarajevo Film Festival was launched near the end of the war and grew to become the biggest regional film competition. The festival aims to support and promote cinema and authors in Southeast Europe, and lately, it attracts over 100,000 people. This year's the festival welcomed big names such as Kevin Spacey, Mike Leigh, Charlie Kaufman, Sharon Maguire and more, as well as regional stars and filmmakers. Also among the guests was Branko Lustig, who has been active in the film industry for almost fifty-three years and whose professional career started with work for Jadran Film and more recently has led to Hollywood success with the multiple-award-winning miniseries The Winds of War, as well as co-producing the Steven Spielberg film Schindler's List, and producing numerous major film hits, such as Peacemaker, the Ridley Scott's film Gladiator, and executive producing Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven and A Good Year, among others. Another honored guest was writer Terry George, a winner of numerous awards for the films In the Name of the Father and Hotel Rwanda, including nominations for the Academy Award in the category of the best screenplay. His exceptional works also include the films Some Mother's Son, The Boxer, A Bright Shining Lie and Hart's War. A returning guest was Mike Leigh, who had attended the festival in 2000 and again in 2002. Leigh is a five-time Oscar nominee and the winner of three BAFTAs and many other leading film awards, including at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival for Naked, the 1996 Palme d'or at Cannes for Secrets and Lies, and the Golden Lion at the 2004 Venice Festival for Vera Drake. He is also the recipient of the Special Heart of Sarajevo Award. And finally, Slavoj Žižek, a renowned Slovenian philosopher,
sociologist, cultural critic and psychoanalyst, and one of the most
influential intellectuals on the international scene, was also a guest
of the festival. Founded by Miro Purivatra, who before the war organized cultural events in the city, the Sarajevo Film Festival was founded as an international film festival with the specific goal of supporting and promoting regional cinematography. The festival is also recognized by FIAPF as a Competitive Specialized Festival, since its filmmakers gain prestigious film awards, like the foreign-film Oscar for Danis Tanovic's No Man's Land in 2002 and the Golden Bear in Berlin for Jasmila Zbanic's Grbavica in 2006. Sarajevo Film Awards 2008 The fourteenth edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival once again celebrated films and authors in the art of film today. Authors, film professionals and guests arrived in Sarajevo to honor and welcomed big-name professionals of the worldwide film industry. The jury, chaired by Turkish film director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, awarded the Croatian film Buick Riviera by director Goran Rusinovic, based on a novel by Bosnian author Miljenko Jergovic, with 25,000 euros and the Heart of Sarajevo Award. Buick Riviera is a Croatian film about two Bosnian immigrants
who left the country during the civil war for a new life in the United
States. The film tells the story of a Bosnian Muslim and a Bosnian Serb
who meet on a deserted road in the United States and spend the next
24 hours together, engaging in a psychological game of mutual accusations
which will change their lives for good. Buick Riviera was selected
from 10 films from Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia
and Turkey, which competed at the Balkans' largest film forum. Leon
Lucev and Slavko Stimac were chosen for a Best Actors Award for their
roles in the film. The Best Actress Award went to Ayca Damagaci for
her role in My Marlon and Brando by Turkish director Huseyin
Karabey. Competition Festival Program for a Feature Film President of the Jury: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, a film director from
Turkey Heart of Sarajevo for Best Film: Buick Riviera, directed by Goran Rušinovic, financial award provided by Council of Europe (25,000 €). The Special Jury Award: March, directed by Austrian Handl
Klaus, financial award provided by Agnes B. (10,000 €) Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress: Ayca Damgaci for My Marlon and Brando, from Turkey, financial award provided by the International Airport Sarajevo (2,500 €). Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor: Leon Lucev and Slavko Štimac for Buick Riviera, financial award sponsored by DHL (2,500 €)
Competition Program for Short Film Jury: Jay Jeon, Pusan Film Festival selector, Korea; Šejla
Kameric, artist, BiH; and Heart of Sarajevo for Best Short Film: Tolerantia, directed
by Ivan Ramadan, Special Jury Mentions: The Wake, directed by Timur Makarevic; I Know, directed by Jan Cvitkovic, Slovenia. Two special jury mentions in the amount of 1,000 € each, provided by Coca-Cola HBC. Special Honorary Mention: Ergo, directed by Geza M. Toth, Hungary.
Competition Program for Documentary Film Jury: Michael Beltrami, film director from Germany; Jorge Sánchez, film director of Guadalajara Film Festival, Mexico, director; Džemal Šabic, film director from BiH. Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Film: Corridor #8,
directed by Boris Despodov, Bulgaria, financial award provided by The
Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (3.000 €). Human Rights Award: Divorce Albanian Style, directed by Adela Peeva, Bulgaria. Special Mention: Fabulous Fairies, directed by Marko Jeftic, SeErbia. Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award: producer Cat Villiers. The award is offered in recognition of the recipient's outstanding contribution to film art and support in development of the Sarajevo Film Festival. Cat Villiers has produced such masterpieces of our region's cinematography as Milcho Manchevski's multiply-awarded Before the Rain and Danis Tanovic's No Man's Land, a film that carried away the 2002 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. |
