The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival (14-21 August) has come to a conclusion with its awards ceremony, which took place on Friday evening at the National Theatre. Various partner awards were also given out the same day, but at a different ceremony that unspooled earlier. Two films from the official competition, Sandra Wollner’s Everytime and Kosara Mitić’s 17, dominated both ceremonies in terms of the significance and the number of awards received, respectively.

Wollner’s movie was deemed the best in competition and was thus presented with the main Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Film, which also comes with a sum of €16,000. The jury, consisting of actresses Emily Watson and Sara Klimovska, filmmakers Athina Rachel Tsangari and Igor Bezinović, as well as the director of the European Film Academy, Matthijs Wouter Knoll, made a unanimous decision, stating: “Moments of cinematic grace float through this mesmerically elastic and transcendental, grief-soaked ghost story.” Everytime was also presented with the CICAE Award. The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director went to Ana Urushadze for Supporting Role, while the actors’ gongs went to Adrian Văncică for his role in the recent Golden Leopard winner, Florin Şerban’s You Don’t Belong Here, and Eva Kostić for her turn in 17. Mitić’s film also scooped the Special Award for Promoting Gender Equality as well as the Cineuropa Award.

In the documentary competition, the Heart of Sarajevo in the feature-length category went to Biljana Tutorov’s and Petar Glomazić’s To Hold a Mountain, which, having won the award, now qualifies for a 2027 Oscars nomination. Karla Jelić’s Holy Defiance came out on top of the short documentary competition, with the Special Jury Award going to Zhora Papoian’s The Ferry Flows. As for the narrative shorts competition, Tamara Todorović’s Nobody Said Anything scooped the Heart of Sarajevo and the qualification for the Oscars, while Sis Gürdal’s Porkatal received the Special Mention.

The audience also gave its verdict. In the main, narrative feature competition, 17 came out on top, winning out over Blerta Basholli’s Dua and Dina Duma’s Skateboarding Is Not for Girls. In the documentary competition, Damir Markovina’s We Shall Live Together got the maximum grade of 5.00 out of 5, followed by Metod Pevec’s When I Get Out and Dragana Jurišić’s The Balkan Cowboy. The Prix Cineplexx for the audience favourite in the Open Air Premiere section went to Hari Šečić’s The Widower, pipping Predrag Ličina’s The Virus of Pathological Kindness and Darko Štante’s The Lost Son to the post.

The complete list of award winners is as follows:

Competition Programme – Narrative Feature Film

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Film
Everytime – Sandra Wollner (Germany/Austria)

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director
Ana Urushadze - Supporting Role (Georgia/Estonia/Turkey)

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress
Eva Kostić – 17 (North Macedonia/Serbia/Slovenia)

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor
Adrian Văncică – You Don’t Belong Here (Romania)

Competition Programme – Documentary Film

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Feature Film
To Hold a Mountain – Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić (Serbia/Montenegro/France/Slovenia/Croatia)

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Short Documentary Film
Holy Defiance – Karla Jelić (Croatia, short)

Special Jury Award
The Ferry Flows – Zhora Papoian (Ukraine/UK, short)

Competition Programme – Narrative Short Film

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Narrative Short Film
Nobody Said Anything – Tamara Todorović (Serbia/France/Slovenia/Croatia, short)
Special Mention
Porkatal – Sis Gürdal (Turkey/France/UK, short)

Competition Programme – Student Short Film

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Student Short Film
Unwellness – Réka Pinczés (Hungary, short)

Other awards

Special Award for Promoting Gender Equality
17 – Kosara Mitić
Special Mention
Don’t Ask Me if I Killed – Helena Maksyom (Romania/Netherlands/Germany/Ukraine)

Special Youth Perspectives Award
Skateboarding Is Not for Girls – Dina Duma (North Macedonia/Belgium/Slovenia/Croatia)

Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award
Emily Watson, actress
Diego Luna, actor
Woody Harrelson, actor
Emir Hadžihafizbegović, actor
Asghar Farhadi, director

Partner awards

Cineuropa Award
17 – Kosara Mitić

CICAE Award
Everytime – Sandra Wollner

European Film Awards European Short Film – Prix Vimeo
The End – Niki Lindroth von Bahr (Sweden/France/Denmark, short)

Awards of the Association of Bosnian Filmmakers

Best BH. Student Film
Tape 2025: I Love You, Dad – Zoja Perović (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Special Jury Award
As if I’m Not There – Milica Vujasin (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Special Jury Mention
Peace Is the Path – Haris Habibija (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Audience Awards

UniCredit Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
17 – Kosara Mitić

UniCredit Audience Award for Documentary
We Shall Live Together – Damir Markovina (Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Prix Cineplexx – Audience Award in Open Air Premiere Section
The Widower – Hari Šečić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)