From 11 to 18 August, the Sarajevo Film Festival, the leading film festival in south-eastern Europe, opens its doors with its 49 titles in competition for the Heart of Sarajevo Awards, divided into four sections: feature films, documentaries, short films and student films.
Among the films in competition, just unveiled by the festival for this year’s edition, we find, after having also been selected at the Locarno Festival, Animal by Greek director Sofia Exarchou, produced by Homemade Films together with Nabis Filmgroup, Digital Cube, Felony Film Productions, ARS Digital Studio, presented at Film Co-Production Market & Pitching Forum 2020.
Animal is a Greece/Austria/Romania/Cyprus/Bulgaria co-production and will have its regional premiere at the festival. The film chronicles the summer of the hosts of an all-inclusive Greek resort, preparing for the tourist season. Under the hot Greek sun, as the pressure of work increases, the nights turn violent and the struggle of Kalia, the protagonist of the narrated events, is revealed in the darkness.
Among the 49 titles in the four sections will be 22 world premieres, 2 international, 22 regional and 3 national. The selection process, overseen by creative director Izeta Građević, involved a total of 935 films, including 200 fiction features, 235 documentaries and 500 shorts and student films.
Below is the complete list of films presented:
Feature Film Competition
Europa – Sudabeh Mortezai (Austria/UK)
Medium – Christina Ioakaimidi (Greece)
Freedom – Tudor Girgiu (Romania/Hungary)
Animal – Sofia Exarchou (Greece/Austria/Romania/Cyprus/Bulgaria)
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry [+] – Elene Naveriani (Georgia/Switzerland)
Day of the Tiger – Andrei Tănase (Romania/France/Greece)
La Palisiada – Philip Sotnychenko (Ukraine)
Lost Country – Vuk Perišić (Serbia/France/Croatia/Luxembourg/Qatar)
Out of Competition
Excursion – Una Gunjak (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia/Serbia/France/Norway/Qatar)
Guardians of the Formula – Dragan Bjelogrlić (Serbia/Slovenia/Montenegro/North Macedonia)
Rumi – Can Ulkay (Turkey) (series)
Documentary Film Competition
A Day, 365 Hours – Eylem Kaftan (Turkey/Croatia)
Body – Petra Seliškar (Slovenia/Croatia/North Macedonia)
Bottlemen – Nemanja Vojinović (Serbia/Slovenia)
Fairy Garden – Gergő Somogyvári (Hungary/Romania/Croatia)
Fran and Verka, or A Usual Day in an Abandoned Village – Sovran Nrecaj (Kosovo) (short film)
Hug – Miroslav Mandić (Slovenia/Croatia) (short film)
Requiem for the Hot Days of Summer – Giorgi Parkosadze (Georgia/Greece)
Silence of Reason – Kumjana Novakova (Bosnia and Herzegovina/North Macedonia)
What’s to Be Done? – Goran Dević (Croatia)
My Muslim Husband – Daniel Ioan Bărnuti, Alexandra Lizeta Bărnuți (Romania)
De Facto – Selma Doborac (Austria/Germany)
Deserters – Damir Markovina (Croatia) (medium-length film)
Horror Vacui – Boris Poljak (Croatia) (short film)
Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels [+] – Mila Turajlić (Serbia/France/Croatia/Montenegro/Qatar)
One Aloe, One Ficus, One Avocado and Six Dracaenas – Marta Smerechynska (Ukraine/France) (short film)
Self-Portrait Along the Borderline – Anna Dziapshipa (Georgia) (medium-length film)
Valerija – Sara Jurinčić (Croatia) (short film)
Between Revolutions – Vlad Petri (Romania/Croatia/Qatar/Iran)
Hope Hotel Phantom – Bojan Stojčić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) (short film)
We Will Not Fade Away – Alisa Kovalenko (Ukraine/France/Poland/USA)
Short Film Competition
Between the Edges of the Day – Andreea Lacatuş (Romania)
How I Learned to Fold Laundry – Barbara Zemljič (Slovenia)
Let the Dewy Flowers Bloom – Ivan Bakrač (Montenegro)
Pigeons Are Dying, When the City Is on Fire – Stavros Markoulakis (Greece)
Ready – Eirini Vianelli (Greece)
The Ghosts You Draw on My Back – Nikola Stojanović (Serbia)
The Witness – Alen Šimić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
27 – Flóra Ana Buda (Hungary)
My Mother Is a Saint – Syllas Tzoumerkas (Greece)
The Real Truth About a Fight – Andrea Slaviček (Croatia)
Student Film Competition
99,999% – Roberta Serban (Romania)
Falling – Ana Gyimesi (Hungary)
Heartbeat – Gvozden Ilić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Pragma – Bianka Szelestey (Hungary)
From the Corner of My Eyes – Domonkos Erhardt (Hungary)
Glass Fingers – Alina Gheorghe (Romania)
In the Dreams All Jellyfish Are Wet – Marie Luise Lehner (Austria)
I Want to Shatter the Greenhouse – Teona Galgotiu (Romania)
Short Cut Grass – David Gašo (Croatia)
Top View of My Brain as a Crime Scene – Luzia Johow (Austria)
Until I Lie Still – Yana Eresina (Austria)
Photo Credits: Homemade Films
