Sarajevo Film Festival, which takes place from Aug 12 to 20, has announced the Panorama section programmed by regular Screen critic Howard Feinstein. The titles selected are: Another Man (Switzerland) Lionel Baier, Antichrist (Denmark) Lars Von Trier, Bronson (UK) Nicolas Winding Refn, Daniel & Ana (Mexico/Spain) Michel Franco, Fear Me Not (Denmark) Kristian Levring, The Fly (Russia) Vladimir Kott, Goodbye Solo (USA) Ramin Bahrani, Laila’s Birthday (Palestine) Rashid Masharawi, Love Exposure (Japan) Sion Sono, The Maid (Chile) Sebastian Silva, Morphine (Russia) Alexey Balabanov, Native Dancer (Kazakhstan/Russia) Guka Omarova, Parque Via (Mexico) Enrique Rivero, Songs From The Southern Seas (Kazakhstan) Marat Sarulu, Vacation (Japan) Hajime Kadoi. Sarajevo Film Festival also announces Panorama Documentaries 2009 and introduces a New Post Production Award.

The Competition Program of Sarajevo Film Festival www.sff.ba finalized the list of many international and regional premieres, and announced the opening its 15th edition, to be Romanian film TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE directed by Cristian Mungiu. The film premiered at this year's Cannes Festival will be shown to the Sarajevo audience at National Theatre and Heineken Open Air Cinema. It is a film of 6 episodes (the Cannes version consists 5 stories) about the last decade of Ceausescu's regime and the propaganda machinery. These are the stories told by people standing in long bred queues.

During the 15th Sarajevo Film Festival on Sarajevo Talent Campus, film professionals and film students will have the opportunity to learn to build international film industry networks. Sarajevo Talent Campus is an educational and networking programme for emerging film talents from South-Eastern European region in co-operation with the Berlin International Film Festival and the Berlinale Talent Campus. The Campus offers the opportunity to discover how to become a part of the regional film industry. Last year lecturers were Academy Award winners Charlie Kaufman, Kevin Spacey, Branko Lustig, Danis Tanović; respectable and many award-winning filmmakers such as Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Mike Leigh, Terry George, Aida Begić, Goran Rušinović etc. During a seven-days of intensive program, workshops, discussions, screenings and excursions, the selected Talents will have discussions with film professionals and to talk with regional and international stars and colleagues, also to build international networks, share ideas. The Selection Committee members are: Izeta Građević, Sarajevo Film Festival Creative Director, Elma Tataragić, Competition Programme Selector, Jovan Marjanović, the SFF's Industry Sector Manager, and Amra Bakšić Čamo, Head of CineLink, have chosen 82 applicants to take part in the Sarajevo Talent Campus. And the participants are coming from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey, and UNMI Kosovo.


CineLink Work in progress is the Sarajevo Film Festival’s platform for films in post production, for a production award worth 80.000 EUR for a project with the most artistic potential. CineLink is the co-production market of the Sarajevo Film Festival for feature projects in development and preproduction. This festivals segment presents about 5 selected films from Southeast Europe that are currently in the stage of postproduction, to promote films from the region, in order to make their completion, prepare festival presentation, release and international circulation. In collaboration with The Post Republic, a Berlin-based post-production facility, CineLink Work in Progress introduces 2009 an award for one of the selected projects. A jury consisting of 3 international film professionals that will award the project on the closing ceremony of the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Radmila Djurica