Award for Our Graduate at the 26th Sarajevo Film Festival

The winners of the 26th Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF), held online this year due to the global coronavirus pandemic, have been announced.

The awards, called the Heart of Sarajevo, were presented in a program broadcast live online and on Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT). The award for Best Feature Film went to Exile by Kosovar director Visar Morina, while Serbian director Mladen Kovacevic's Merry Christmas, Yiwu won Best Documentary Film. Croatian director Tin Zanic's Antiotpad won Best Short Film, and the award for Best Student Film went to Büyük İstanbul Depresyonu (The Great Istanbul Depression), directed by our Department of Cinema and Television graduate Zeynep Dilan Süren.

A FESTIVAL ATTENDED BY WORLD STARS

Launched to erase the traces of the war in Bosnia (1992-1995) and to make the capital Sarajevo a center of culture and art once again, the Sarajevo Film Festival has hosted many world-famous names throughout its history of more than a quarter of a century. Numerous world-famous names have attended the festival, from Robert De Niro to Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt to Orlando Bloom, Daniel Craig to John Malkovich, and Morgan Freeman to Nuri Bilge Ceylan. This year's festival opened with the world premiere of the TRT production Focus, Grandma, directed by Bosnian director Pjer Zalica, and the festival, in which 49 films from Türkiye, the region and European countries competed, also hosted the world premiere of Turkish director Fatih Özcan's film "Mavzer". This year, 8 films competed for Best Feature Film, 16 for Best Documentary Film, 10 for Best Short Film and 15 for Best Student Film.

"FOR ALL THE WOMEN WHO NEVER GIVE UP ON SOLIDARITY..."

Süren shared her feelings in posts on her social media account: "I am speaking here on behalf of the entire team of our film. We are all very happy. We would like to thank the jury members and the festival team, who organized the festival as best they could under these difficult conditions. It was a very special week. Shooting this video is as exciting as going on stage. Even though we live different lives in different cities, there is something similar about our struggle. I would like to accept this award for young women around the world who are just starting out. For all the women who find their way in the city through ups and downs, and who never give up on solidarity, whatever happens to them in the tough struggle of life."