The Sarajevo Film Festival will debut 15 feature films across its four competition strands during its 2025 edition, running from August 15 to 22.
A total of 50 films will compete for the festival’s Heart of Sarajevo awards. The festival’s four competition sections for feature, documentary, short, and student films will also screen six international, 28 regional, and two national premieres.
Announcing today’s batch of titles, Sarajevo Creative Director Izeta Građević, said: “The competition programs of the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival bring together filmmakers who, each from their own perspective and in various film formats and genres, explore how we live and how we survive within complex and unstable social frameworks. The backbone of this year’s competition programs are films that, transcending national boundaries, remain true to the universal stories that shape our lives. In this range – from topics that deal with today to those that question the past – this selection opens up space to remember, through film stories, what we all have in common: the need for meaning, for closeness, for understanding – ourselves and others.”
The festival said Građević and his programming team saw 1036 films, including 195 feature fiction films, 291 documentaries, and 550 short and student titles.
The Sarajevo Film Festival competition programme is open for films and filmmakers from Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Türkiye, and Ukraine.
The jury for this year’s festival will be led by Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa. He will be joined by Berlinale head Tricia Tuttle, actor Dragan Mićanović, writer-actor-director Emanuel Pârvu, and writer-director Ena Sendijarević.
Here’s the full list of titles:
COMPETITION PROGRAMME – FEATURE FILM 2025 1. OTTER / VIDRA, Srđan Vuletić (Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Croatia, Kosovo*, 2025, 88 min.) – World premiere2. STARS OF LITTLE IMPORTANCE / MINDEN CSILLAG, Renátó Olasz (Hungary, 2025, 83 min.) – World premiere3. YUGO FLORIDA, Vladimir Tagić (Serbia, Bulgaria, France, Croatia, Montenegro, 2025, 112 min.) – World premiere4. DJ AHMET, Georgi M. Unkovski (North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia, 2025, 99 min.) – Regional premiere5. FANTASY, Kukla (Slovenia, North Macedonia, 2025, 98 min.) – Regional premiere6. GOD WILL NOT HELP / BOG NEĆE POMOĆI, Hana Jušić (Croatia, Italy, Romania, Greece, France, Slovenia, 2025, 135 min.) – Regional premiere7. SORELLA DI CLAUSURA, Ivana Mladenović (Romania, Serbia, Italy, Spain, 2025, 103 min.) – Regional premiere8. WHITE SNAIL, Elsa Kremser, Levin Peter (Austria, Germany, 2025, 115 min.) – Regional premiere9. WIND, TALK TO ME / VETRE, PRIČAJ SA MNOM, Stefan Đorđević (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, 2025, 100 min.) – Regional premiere COMPETITION PROGRAMME – DOCUMENTARY FILM 2025
1. BOSNIAN KNIGHT / BOSANSKI VITEZ, Tarik Hodžić (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, 2025, 79 min.) – World premiere2. I SAW A ‘SUNO’ / SUNO DIKHLEM, KATALIN BARSONY (Hungary, Belgium, 2025, 92 min.) – World premiere3. KITE / CHARTAETOS, Thanos Psichogios (Greece, 2025, 15 min.) – World premiere4. STEEL HOTEL SONG, Bojan Stojčić (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2025, 19 min.) – World premiere5. LETTERS / PISMA, Aysel Küçüksu (Bulgaria, 2025, 11 min.) – International premiere6. MY DAD’S LESSONS / LEKCIJE MOG TATE, Dalija Dozet (Croatia, 2025, 62 min.) – International premiere7. RED SLIDE / CRVENI TOBOGAN, Nebojša Slijepčević (Croatia, 2025, 27 min.) – International premiere8. THIRD WORLD / TREĆI SVIJET, Arsen Oremović (Croatia, 2025, 101 min.) – International premiere9. CUBA & ALASKA, Yegor Troyanovsky (Ukraine, France, Belgium, 2025, 93 min.) – Regional premiere10. DIVIA, Dmytro Hreshko (Ukraine, Poland, The Netherlands, USA, 2025, 79 min.) – Regional premiere11. DREAMERS: PEOPLE OF THE LIGHT / XƏYALPƏRƏSTLƏR: İŞIĞIN UŞAQLARI, Imam Hasanov (Azerbaijan, 2025, 86 min.) – Regional premiere12. EVERYTIME YOU LEAVE, YOU ARE BORN AGAIN / SVAKI PUT KAD ODEŠ, PONOVO SE RAĐAŠ, Mladen Bundalo (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, 2025, 24 min.) – Regional premiere13. I BELIEVE THE PORTRAIT SAVED ME / MUA BESOJ MË SHPËTOJ PORTRETI, Alban Muja (Kosovo*, The Netherlands, 2025, 10 min.) – Regional premiere14. IN HELL WITH IVO, Kristina Nikolova (Bulgaria, USA, 2025, 80 min.) – Regional premiere15. MILITANTROPOS, Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova, Simon Mozgoviy (Ukraine, Austria, France, 2025, 111 min.) – Regional premiere16. OUR TIME WILL COME / UNSERE ZEIT WIRD KOMMEN, Ivette Löcker (Austria, 2025, 105 min.) – Regional premiere17. THE MEN’S LAND / KACEBIS MITSA, Mariam Bakacho Khatchvani (Georgia, Hungary, 2025, 15 min.) – Regional premiere18. SLET 1988, Marta Popivoda (Serbia, Germany, France, 2025, 22 min.) – Regional premiere19. 9-MONTH CONTRACT, Ketevan Vashagashvili (Georgia, Bulgaria, Germany, 2025, 77 min.) – B&H premiere20. TATA, Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc (Romania, Germany, The Netherlands, 2025, 82 min.) – B&H premiere21. OHO FILM, Damjan Kozole (Slovenia, Croatia, 2025, 93 min.) – International premiere, out of competition COMPETITION PROGRAMME – SHORT FILM 2025
1. BERNA’S EYES / SYTË E BERNËS, Ermal Gërdovci (Kosovo*, North Macedonia, 2025, 17 min.) – World premiere2. DESERT, SHE / IERIMOS, Ioanna Digenaki (Greece, 2025, 14 min.) – World premiere3. PROCEDURE / PROSEDÜR, Rabia Özmen (Türkiye, 2025, 18 min.) – World premiere4. ALIȘVERIȘ, Vasile Todinca (Romania, 2025, 15 min.) – Regional premiere5. ERASERHEAD IN A KNITTED SHOPPING BAG, Lili Koss (Bulgaria, 2025, 19 min.) – Regional premiere6. HYSTERICAL FIT OF LAUGHTER / HISTERIČNI NAPAD SMEHA, Matija Gluščević, Dušan Zorić (Serbia, Croatia, 2025, 15 min.) – Regional premiere7. INDEX, Radu Muntean (Romania, 2025, 28 min.) – Regional premiere8. THE SPECTACLE, Bálint Kenyeres (Hungary, France, 2025, 17 min.) – Regional premiere9. UPON SUNRISE / KAD SVANE, Stefan Ivančić (Serbia, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, 2025, 15 min.) – Regional premiere10. WINTER IN MARCH / LUMI SAADAB MEID, Natalia Mirzoyan (Armenia, Estonia, France, Belgium, 2025, 16 min.) – Regional premiere COMPETITION PROGRAMME – STUDENT FILM 2025 1. AFTER CLASS / DUPĂ ORE, Marius Papară (Romania, 2025, 18 min.) – World premiere2. FOUND & LOST, Reza Rasouli (Austria, 2025, 17 min.) – World premiere3. HOME, A SPACE BETWEEN US, Effi Rabsilber (Greece, 2025, 16 min.) – World premiere4. RAHLO, Jozo Schmuch (Croatia, 2025, 19 min.) – World premiere5. TARIK, Adem Tutić (Serbia, 2025, 27 min.) – World premiere6. CURFEW / KOMENDANTSKA HODYNA, Yelyzaveta Toptyhina (Ukraine, 2025, 23 min.) – International premiere7. BACKSTROKE / SIRTÜSTÜ, Asya Günen (Türkiye, 2025, 14 min.) – Regional premiere8. LIVING STONES / ÉLŐ KÖVEK, Jakob Ladányi Jancsó (Hungary, 2025, 20 min.) – Regional premiere9. MILK AND COOKIES / FURSECURI ȘI LAPTE, Andrei-Tache Codreanu (Romania, 2025, 21 min.) – Regional premiere10. PENINSULA / POLUOTOK, David Gašo (Croatia, 2025, 19 min.) – Regional premiere11. WISH YOU WERE EAR, Mirjana Balogh (Hungary, 2025, 10 min.) – Regional premiere
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