Jovan Marjanović is aware just how special the Sarajevo Film Festival is.
He would know, having worked for the Bosnian festival since he was just 19. Marjanović is 46 now, and comes into his fifth edition as the event’s sole director with buckets of confidence in what this fest has to offer European cinema.
Sarajevo is a film festival born out of war — its first edition, in 1995, took place while the city was still under siege — and that sense of resistance, of using film to empower communities, still sits at the heart of the festival today.
British actress Emily Watson has been tapped to head up the Sarajevo Film Festival jury this year, with the event running Aug. 14-21, alongside director of the European Film Academy Matthijs Wouter Knol, Yorgos Lanthimos’ producer Athina Rachel Tsangari, filmmaker Igor Bezinović and actress Sara Klimoska.
Watson will also receive the prestigious Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, also being presented to Asghar Farhadi, Diego Luna and Woody Harrelson at this installment. “Because it is an award tied to the city, it doesn’t have to be specifically about Sarajevo, but [about] representing similar values or understanding the world of cinema,” Marjanović tells The Hollywood Reporter about how the team selects their Honorary Heart recipients ahead of the 32nd edition.
