The Sarajevo Film Festival (14-21 August) has just announced its programme for the 32nd edition. Across four competitive sections, 21 films will have their world premiere, six their national premiere and 23 their regional premiere. According to Izeta Građević, the creative director of the largest film gathering in the Western Balkans, the selection had to be made from more than 1,200 submissions: 210 narrative features, 305 documentaries and around 700 short films.

Elma Tataragić, the programmer of the Competition Programme – Narrative Feature Film, has included nine films in the programme, of which one film will have its world premiere, one its international premiere, one its European premiere, and six their regional premieres. On that occasion, she said: “This year’s Sarajevo Film Festival Competition programme presents nine new feature films from across the region. The selection is dominated by second and third features, alongside one debut and two fifth features, reflecting both the emergence of new voices and the continued development of established auteurs.” The films will compete for four awards: Hearts of Sarajevo for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress.

Urša Menart’s sophomore feature Everything That’s Wrong With You will celebrate its world premiere, Zvonimir Jurić’s Small Things will have its international premiere, and Dina Duma’s Tribeca entry Skateboarding Is Not for Girls will enjoy its European premiere. The rest of the line-up, which will have regional premieres at Sarajevo, includes heavy-hitters such as Visar Morina’s Sundance winner Shame and Money, Sandra Wollner’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Everytime, Ana Urushadze’s IFFR Tiger Competition Special Jury Award winner Supporting Role, Blerta Basholli’s Cannes’ Critics’ Week entry Dua, Kosara Mitić’s Berlinale Perspectives entry 17 and Florin Şerban’s Locarno competitor You Don’t Belong Here.

Rada Šešić, programmer of the Competition Programme – Documentary Film, selected 22 films: 13 feature-length and eight short documentary films, plus one feature-length film screening out of competition. It features nine world premieres, four international premieres and eight regional premieres. “This year’s selection showcases the impressive vitality and creativity of contemporary documentary filmmaking from the region. Intimate in scale, yet unmistakably political, these films reveal the resilience of individuals and communities determined to resist silence and challenge entrenched systems of power,” Šešić summed up. The winner of the Heart of Sarajevo award would also qualify for the next year’s Academy Awards.

The documentary competition will see the world premieres of, among others, Milcho Manchevski’s new documentary Good People, actress Bojana Novaković’s directorial debut The Forbidden Aunt and Damir Markovina’s We Shall Live Together. Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić’s Sundance winner To Hold a Mountain will celebrate its regional premiere, while Filip Gajić’s and Aleksa Borković’s Yugo Goes to America will be screened out of competition.

Ten short films – seven live-action and three animated – will compete for the Heart of Sarajevo, Oscars and European Film Awards qualification in the Competition Programme – Narrative Short Film. Five of them will have their world premiere and five their international premiere. Asja Krsmanović Imamović, programmer of the Competition Programme – Student Short Film, selected 11 films for the programme, of which six will have their world premiere in Sarajevo, one its international premiere and four films their regional premiere.

The complete list of films in competition:

Feature Films

Fiction Competition

Dua – Blerta Basholli (Kosovo/Switzerland/France)
Skateboarding Is Not for Girls – Dina Duma (North Macedonia/Belgium/Slovenia/Croatia)
Small Things – Zvonimir Jurić (Croatia/Slovenia/Serbia)
Everything That’s Wrong With You – Urša Menart (Slovenia/Germany/Serbia)
17 – Kosara Mitić (North Macedonia/Serbia/Slovenia)
Shame and Money – Visar Morina (Germany/Kosovo/North Macedonia/Belgium)
You Don’t Belong Here – Florin Şerban (Romania)
Supporting Role – Ana Urushadze (Georgia/Estonia/Turkey)
Everytime – Sandra Wollner (Austria/Germany)

Documentary Competition

32 Meters – Morteza Atabaki (Turkey/Iran/Qatar)
Fragments of Belonging – Tatjana Božić (Croatia/Netherlands/Germany)
Bear With Me – Martin Genovski (Bulgaria)
The Balkan Cowboy – Dragana Jurišić (Croatia/Ireland)
Don’t Ask Me If I Killed – Helena Maksyom (Romania/Netherlands/Germany/Ukraine)
Good People – Milcho Manchevski (North Macedonia)
We Shall Live Together – Damir Markovina (Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovina)
The Forbidden Aunt – Bojana Novaković (Serbia/Australia)
Bugboy – Lucas Paleocrassas (Greece/France/Denmark)
When I Get Out – Metod Pevec (Slovenia)
Electing Ms Santa – Raisa Răzmeriță (Moldova/Romania)
For Life – Ahmet Seven (Turkey)
To Hold a Mountain – Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić (Serbia/Montenegro/France/Slovenia/Croatia)

Out of Competition

Yugo Goes to America – Filip Grujić, Aleksa Borković (Serbia/Croatia)

Short Films

Narrative Short Films Competition

Go Outside and Hug a Tree – Irina Alexiu (Romania)
Cosmonauts – Leo Černic (Slovenia/Italy)
Mamama – Danica Dakić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Motherhood – Anca Damian (Romania/Belgium/France)
Patch – Luka Galešić (Croatia)
Porkatal – Sis Gürdal (Turkey/France/UK)
Adgwa-Ata – Zsuzsanna Krief (Hungary/France)
Hidden in Frame – Anna Sarukhanova (Georgia/UK)
Nobody Said Anything – Tamara Todorović (Serbia/France/Slovenia/Croatia)
Ditch – Marianna Vas (Hungary)

Documentary Short Films Competition

Fahrudin – Alen Drljević (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Of Light Ghosts – Isabella Fellinger (Austria)
Asparagus Bear – Ivan Grgur (Croatia)
The Captain and the Caspian Sea – Turkan Huseyin (Azerbaijan)
Holy Defiance – Karla Jelić (Croatia)
The Ferry Flows – Zhora Papoian (Ukraine/UK)
Bro Ram – Branko Schmidt (Croatia)
Dear Orchid – Hana Selena Sokolović (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia/Serbia/Netherlands)

Student Short Films Competition

A. Wants Out (on Neutrality) – Zorah Berghammer (Austria)
Rabbit Don’t Run – Maximilian Conway, Elisabeth Jakob (Austria)
Sisters – Sara Ećimović (Serbia)
Over the Threshold – Tara Gajović (Serbia)
Neighbour – Dan Grabnar (Serbia)
Bonefuzz – Márk László (Hungary)
Unwellness – Réka Pinczés (Hungary)
Hyena – Fanny Rösch (Austria)
The Future Is in Your Hands, but Why Not Lend It to the Specialists – Alexandra Schinteie (Romania)
The Go-Between – Emir Solaković (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Water Walls – Bianka Szelestey (Hungary)