The short film jury consisted of Stefan Ivančić (director, producer, programmer; Serbia), Hella Wenders (director; Germany) and Sara Luna Zorić (actress; the Netherlands). It is important to note that the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has named Sarajevo Film Festival as a qualifying festival for the Oscars for best short film.    

Everything Ahead is a story about a young woman who arrives on one of the Adriatic islands trying to make a living as a caregiver and intending to stay only temporarily but developing an attachment to the place. Mate Ugrin wrote the screenplay, edited and directed the film, Tena Gojić produced it, while the film is a Dinaridi Film (Croatia) production, co-produced by Vertical Production (France). The director of photography on the project was Ivan Marković, while next to Ugrin, editing was done by Jelena Maksimović. Costume and production design was created by Hana Grebenar and Iva Maria Jurić, respectively, while the cast is headed up by Tea Ljubešić, Nevena Šegota, Kristian Kovilić, Maruška Aras and Felix Cadot. Sound design was done by Jakov Munižaba, while the film received financial support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and Nouvelle-Aquitaine Film Workout. 

The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film by a unanimous jury decision went to Austrian-German film Great Freedom, directed by Austrian Sebastian Meise. For his performance in the film, the award for Best Actor went to Georg Friedrich, while three young actresses, Flaka Latifi, Urate Shabani and Era Balaj, split the award for best female performance for their appearance in the Kosovar title The Hill Where Lionesses Roar, directed by Luàna Bajrami.

Milica Tomović was awarded the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director, for Serbian drama The Celts, while Landscapes of Resistance, a Serbian-French-German co-production directed by Marta Popivoda was chosen as the Best Documentary title. The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Student Film went to Summer Planning, by Romanian director Alexandru Mironescu. 

The award ceremony included the Special Award for Promoting Gender Equality, a new award introduced at SFF, open to films and directors not limited to Competition strands and including other programmes and territories as well, provided that the film is the director’s first feature film. The award went to Kosovar director Norika Sefa for Looking for Venera.

The full list of all winning titles is available on this link, while all other details may be found on the festival’s official website. 

Croatian film professionals also participated in the industry section of the Sarajevo Film Festival, CineLink Industry Days. The TV Drama Vision Pitch Award – leading to the presentation at the TV Drama Vision conference in Göteborg went to Gypsy, but the Fairest of Them All, an Antitalent production house project. The drama series is based on the novel of the same name written by Kristian Novak. The script for the six-episode series is written by Mario Kozina and Maja Pek-Brünjes, with Danijel Pek as the project’s producer.     

This year once again, as part of the CineLink Drama co-production forum, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre awarded its CineLink Drama Award intended for further project development, in the value of 15,000 euros, which went to Romanian project Hooked, directed by Adrian Sitaru. 

Cover photograph: Tena Gojić, producer of Everything head, with the Heart of Sarajevo
(*27th Sarajevo Film Festival, 2021 (c) Obala Art Centar)