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Romanian director Raisa Razmerita’s Electing Miss Santa pitched in the Docu Rough Cut Boutique strand of CineLink, the industry platform of the Sarajevo Film Festival, was one of the stand-out projects of this year’s event, according to international attendees.

The film follows Elena, a struggling farmer in a Moldovan village who decides to run for mayor.

“I can’t remember the last time a marketplace presented such a compelling protagonist as Elena Santa,” said Polly Haythornthwaite, digital coordinator at the UK’s Java Films. “The film’s unique perspective comes not just from its focus on a rural village in Moldova,...

While the main events at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival have captured the spotlight — with films such as the Oscar-nominated Bosnian director Danis Tanović’s My Late Summer making its world premiere and Hollywood A-listers Alexander Payne, Meg Ryan and Paul Schrader on hand across the week — the wheels of business have been turning in the background.

The third edition of the Sff’s CineLink Producers’ Lab has gathered 15 Southern European producers with between two and five years of experience for an immersive program of industry training and networking. The goal of the program is to help the producers’ tackle the universal issues facing contemporary cinema while “equipping participants with the knowledge and understanding of digital supply chain changes and the ever-evolving landscape of film distribution.”

The Producers’ Lab is “aimed at stimulating personal and professional growth for film professionals in Southeast Europe,” according to organizers. “Under this umbrella,...

Georgian filmmaker Ana Urushadze, whose debut “Scary Mother” won best first feature at the Locarno Film Festival in 2017, is readying her anticipated sophomore feature, “Supporting Role.” The writer-director is presenting the film this week in the works-in-progress section of CineLink Industry Days, the industry arm of the Sarajevo Film Festival.

The film follows a once-famous star of Georgian cinema, who — triggered by a casting session with a young female director — embarks on a bizarre and fatalistic odyssey of self-transformation. Accustomed to playing charming heroic protagonists, he is insulted by the offer of a supporting role. But gradually, without realizing it himself, he starts getting into character and seemingly unconsciously accepts the role he has been offered to play.

Speaking to Variety in Sarajevo, Urushadze explained that the film was inspired by the auditions for her first feature, when she was searching for an elderly man to play the role of the protagonist’s father.

Across more than two decades as the parallel arm of the Sarajevo Film Festival, CineLink Industry Days has grown into the leading film and TV industry event in the Balkan region, an incubator of talent from Southeast Europe — and, increasingly, beyond — and a crucial stop for globetrotting industry executives looking to discover fresh cinematic voices.

The mid-summer event, which this year takes place Aug. 17 – 22, traditionally comes on the heels of the Locarno Film Festival and wraps in the run-up to Venice and Toronto, occupying a perhaps fitting slot in the calendar. “Not too big, but not small at all,” is how Maša Marković, now in her third year as the festival’s head of industry, characterizes it. As a result, Sarajevo “manages to create this sense of being the place to be.”

Marković credits the event’s “curatorial approach” for ensuring that both the selection of projects for its influential...

During the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug. 16 to 23), CineLink, the festival’s industry program, will present its work-in-progress showcase. This includes eight feature-length fiction and one documentary film in the production or post-production stages from Southeast Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Among those competing are Alisa Kovalenko, who was in competition in Sarajevo last year for “We Will Not Fade Away,” which also screened at the Berlinale; Adrian Sitaru, named best director at Locarno with “Best Intentions“; Tarik Aktas, who took best emerging director at Locarno with “Dead Horse Nebula”; Ralitza Petrova, winner of the Golden Leopard for best film at Locarno with “Godless“; Maya Vitkova, who competed at Sundance with “Viktoria“; and Ana Urushadze, who took best first feature at Locarno for “Scary Mother.”

The projects will be presented to funders, sales agents, distributors, broadcasters and festival programmers with the aim of driving forward their completion and boosting their distribution chances.

Nine feature-length projects in the CineLink Work in Progress selection of Sarajevo Film Festival include the new feature from Ukrainian filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko.

Kovalenko will present Frontline, a documentary filmed during her four-month stint in the Ukrainian army following the increased Russian invasion in February 2022.

Scroll down for the full list of Work in Progress projects

The project has previously participated in Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival’s Inspiration Forum, and the IDFA Forum, both in 2022.

It is produced by Kasia Kuczynska for Poland’s Haka Films, with Monica Hellstrom of Strom Pictures as co-producer.

Kovalenko has previously directed...

Principal photography has ended on Georgian writer-director Ana Urushadze’s second film, “Supporting Role.” The first images have been released.

It follows on from the success of Urushadze’s 2017 debut “Scary Mother,” which premiered and won best first feature at Locarno Film Festival before going on to pick up the top prize in Sarajevo. It was nominated for the European Film Academy’s Discovery Award and was Georgia’s entry for the 90th Academy Awards.

The story of “Supporting Role” follows a once-famous star of Georgian cinema, who – triggered by a casting session with a young female director – embarks on a bizarre and fatalistic odyssey of self-transformation. Accustomed to playing charming heroic protagonists, he is insulted by the offer of a supporting role. But gradually, without realizing it himself, he starts getting into character and seemingly unconsciously accepts the role he has been offered to play.

The film stars Dato Bakhtadze,...

The results of the first Eurimages Project Evaluation Session of 2024 have been unveiled and among the batch of European-based filmmakers to receive some much-appreciated coin we find Tarik Saleh’s Eagles of the Republic, Carla Simon’s Romería, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Agnieszka Holland’s Franz, Amanda Kernell’s The Curse, a Love Story and Hafsia Herzi’s The Last One. For the most part, these projects are expected to move into production as early as this spring and get major film festival premieres starting in 2025. 26 fiction films received coin with five docu projects. Here are the films:

Brave – Marie-Elsa Sgualdo (Switzerland) – €300 000

Desire Lines – Dane Komljen (Serbia) – €120 000

Don’t Let Me Die – Andrei Epure (Romania) – €150 000

Eagles of the Republic – Tarik Saleh (Sweden) – €500 000

Fed Up – Júlia De Paz Solvas (Spain) – €250 000

Finale Allegro – Emanuela Piovano (Italy) – €150 000

Franz – Agnieszka Holland (Poland) – €500 000

God Will Not Help – Hana Jušić (Croatia) – €390 000

Haven of Hope – Seemab...

New projects from directors including Agnieszka Holland, Carla Simon, Joachim Trier, Amanda Kernell and Tarik Saleh are among 26 features to receive backing from Eurimages’ in its latest round of co-production funding.

The 26 features – including five documentaries and one animation – have shared a total of €7m funding. Fourteen are to be directed by women.

Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s Franz Kafka biopic Franz received €500,000 ahead of an expected shoot in Czech Republic and Germany next month with newcomer Idan Weiss to play Kafka. Holland’s most recent film Green Border won the special jury prize in competition at Venice in 2023.

Spain’s Carla Simon,...

When Ketie Danelia was approached a few years ago with the script for “And Then We Danced,” Levan Akin’s gay romantic drama about a young man’s sexual awakening in the masculine world of Georgian dance, the producer knew the risks. “Everyone was telling me not to take this project, because it’s very dangerous. Which turned out to be true,” she tells Variety.

In a conservative, patriarchal country where the powerful Orthodox Church holds tremendous sway, filming was a challenge. Locations would balk at the last minute, concerned about the potential backlash; far-right groups threatened the cast and crew. When the movie finally premiered in Tbilisi in 2019, after bowing in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight to rave reviews, police units had to escort moviegoers into the cinema. Yet through it all, Danelia remained undaunted. “I knew why I was doing it,” she says.

“And Then We Danced” is among a...

After being forced to pivot entirely online last-minute due to a Covid spike, Bosnia’s Sarajevo Film Festival is coming to a close and has unveiled its prize winners for this year’s edition.

A jury chaired by Michel Hazanavicius and featuring Berlinale director Carlo Chatrian, actress Jadranka Đokić, director Srdan Golubović and the Morelia Film Festival’s Andrea Stavenhagen, awarded the festival’s top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo, to Visar Morina’s Exile. The pic stars Misel Maticevic and Sandra Huller in the story of a chemical engineer of foreign origin who plunges into an identity crisis. It debuted at Sundance this year.

The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director went to Ru Hasanov for The Island Within, while Best Actress went to Marija Škaričić for Mare, and Best Actor went to Vangelis Mourikis for Digger. You can see the list of awards below, as well as the festival’s industry winners.

Winners included coming-of-age drama The Otter from Bosnian director Srđan Vuletić.

Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry platform CineLink has announced the winners of its 18th edition, which took place entirely online for the first time as a result of the virus crisis.

Scroll down for full list of winners

More than 40 projects in various formats and stages of development were presented from August 15-20 across strands including CineLink Co-Production Market, CineLink Work in Progress and Docu Rough Cut Boutique.

Winners included Montenegro coming-of-age drama The Otter, from director Srđan Vuletić, which won the €20,000 Eurimages co-production development award.

Vuletić is known...

Visar Morina’s “Exile,” a tense psychodrama about a Kosovan pharmacologist in Germany who becomes increasingly paranoid over a series of menacing events, won the top prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival, earning the Kosovo-born German director the Heart of Sarajevo.

The award ceremony took place online Thursday night, with Morina winning top honors from a jury led by Academy Award-winning director Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”) and comprised of Carlo Chatrian, artistic director of the Berlin Intl. Film Festival; Croatian actress Jadranka Đokić; Serbian director Srdan Golubović; and Andrea Stavenhagen, head of industry and training projects at the Morelia Film Festival.

Director Michel Franco and actor Mads Mikkelsen were given honorary Heart of Sarajevo awards.

The timely drama from Morina, who was named one of Variety‘s 10 Europeans to Watch earlier this year, is a poignant study of identity and belonging at a time of ongoing uncertainty in Europe over...

Titles include Lukas Dhont’s Cannes title ‘Girl’.

The European Film Academy (Efa) has nominated six films for the European Discovery Fipresci prize, an award given to a first-time feature director.

The nominees include Lukas Dhont’s Girl, a drama about a young girl born in a boy’s body who dreams of being a ballerina. It premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, winning the Caméra d’Or for best first feature as well as the Queer Palm.

This year’s Golden Bear winner from the Berlinale, Adina Pintilie’s Touch Me Not, is nominated, alongside Gustav Möller...

Lukas Dhont's Girl, a coming-of-age drama involving a transgender girl training to be a ballerina; Gustav Moller's sparse thriller The Guilty, focused entirely on a headset-wearing worker at an Danish emergency call center; and Adina Pintilie's experimental, transgressive Touch Me Not, winner of this year's Golden Bear in Berlin, are among the nominees for the European Discovery 2018, the best first-feature honor of the European Film Awards.

The Hungarian drama One Day, from Zsofia Szilagyi, the assistant director of 2017 Berlinale winner On Body and Soul; Scary Mother, a look at a 50-year-old housewife in a mid-life crisis from filmmaker Ana Urushadze;...

Lukas Dhont's Girl, a coming-of-age drama involving a transgender girl training to be a ballerina; Gustav Moller's sparse thriller The Guilty, focused entirely on a headset-wearing worker at an Danish emergency call center; and Adina Pintilie's experimental, transgressive Touch Me Not, winner of this year's Golden Bear in Berlin, are among the nominees for the European Discovery 2018, the best first-feature honor of the European Film Awards.

The Hungarian drama One Day, from Zsofia Szilagyi, the assistant director of 2017 Berlinale winner On Body and Soul; Scary Mother, a look at a 50-year-old housewife in a mid-life crisis from filmmaker Ana Urushadze;...

The El Gouna Film Festival (Gff) taking place in El Gouna, Egypt September 20 to 28 announced its film selection.

During their press conference attended by Gff founder Naguib Sawiris and El Gouna founder Samih Sawiris, Minister of Tourism Dr. Rania Al-Mashat under whose auspices the festival is held, a number of Gff’s International Advisory Board members, in addition to members of its international jury, and some of the directors, actors and producers of the participating films, Naguib Sawiris explaine the founding of this new festival which might possibly take up the slack caused by the cessation of the Dubai Film Festival:

We believe in the role art plays in the development of society and in challenging regressive ideas… that is why we established Gff.

This year, 15 films are participating in the Feature Narrative Competition, 12 films in the Feature Documentary Competition, 23 films in the Short Film Competition, as well as 5 films...

Titles include Berlin winner ‘Touch Me Not’, ‘Cold War’ and ‘Paddington 2’.

The 49 films recommended for nomination for the 2018 European Film Awards have been revealed.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The list includes Adina Pintilie’s Berlin winner Touch Me Not and Cannes prize winners Cold War, Dogman and Happy As Lazzaro.

Films with UK involvement on the list include Michael Pearce’s Beast and Paddington 2.

The films were selected by the 20 countries with the most Efa members as well as a selection committee consisting of the Efa board and experts.

In the coming weeks, more than...

The 24th Sarajevo Film Festival has awarded its top prize to Bulgarian director Milko Lazarov’s “Ága.” The Yakut-language movie, which saw its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, tells the story of a troubled Inuit family.

“Ága” won the Heart of Sarajevo on Thursday night, the festival’s prize for best feature film, which includes a €16,000 award. The movie, a co-production between Bulgaria, Germany and France, was co-written by Lazarov and Simeon Ventsislavov.

“Ága” centers on an isolated Inuit couple who hold on to their traditions while global warming and the modern world encroach. When the wife’s health deteriorates, the husband decides to fulfill her last wish by embarking on a long journey to find their daughter, Ága, who deserted the couple long ago. Variety’s Jay Weissberg called the film a “handsome paean to a dying culture.”

For the second year running, the festival...

24th edition of European festival comes to a close.

Milko Lazarov’s Aga has won this year’s Heart of Sarajevo prize for best feature film.

The 24th edition of the South-eastern European festival came to a close on Thursday night (Aug 16) and its awards ceremony also saw Ioana Uricaru’s Lemonade scoop the Heart of Sarajevo for best director. Both awards come with a €10,000 prize.

One Day’s Zsófia Szamosi and The Load’s Leon Lučev took the top prizes for best actress and actor respectively.

The Feature Competition jury was presided over by filmmaker Asghar Farhadi and also featured Judita Franković Brdar,...

Asghar Farhadi was previously announced as jury president.

Sarajevo Film Festival has announced the full jury for its 24th edition, which runs from August 10-17.

Alongside previously announced jury president Asghar Farhadi will be Croatian actress Judia Franković Brdar (Sonja And The Bull); and artistic director of International Film Festival & Awards Macao Mike Goodrige, who was also a programmer for Sarajevo’s international Kinoscope section from 2012 to 2017.

Rounding out the jury are American photographer Brigitte Lacombe, who has worked for Vanity Fair, GQ and the New Yorker amongst others; and Georgian writer-director Ana Urushadze, whose debut feature Scary Mother won...

The 44th Seattle International Film Festival announced its winners at the festival’s concluding ceremony Sunday, with Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” taking home prizes for best film and best actress for star Elsie Fisher. Mister Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” which has drawn attention since the release of its nostalgic trailer, won the best documentary prize for director Morgan Neville.

See the full list of winners below.

Best Film

“Eighth Grade,” directed by Bo Burnham (USA 2018)

Best Documentary

“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” directed by Morgan Neville (USA 2018)

Best Director

Gustav Möller, “The Guilty” (Denmark 2018)

Best Actor

Miguel Ángel Solá, “The Last Suit” (Argentina/Poland/Spain/France/Germany 2017)

Best Actress

Elsie Fisher, “Eighth Grade” (USA 2018)

Best Short Film

“Emergency,” directed by Carey Williams (USA 2017)

Lena Sharpe Award for Persistence of Vision

Presented by Women in Film – Seattle

Dana Nachman, “Pick of the Litter” (USA 2017)

Siff...

Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi will head the competition jury for the 24th Sarajevo Film Festival, the festival announced Tuesday. The Iranian director is fresh off the world premiere of his latest film, “Everybody Knows,” as the opener of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month.

“Everybody Knows” will also screen in Sarajevo as part of the festival’s Open Air program. The film stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

Last year’s Sarajevo Film Festival saw Georgian director Ana Urushadze’s “Scary Mother” take home the festival’s top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo, for best feature film, which includes a €16,000 financial award. The five-person jury was presided over by Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco.

Farhadi won his first Oscar for best foreign-language film for his 2011 drama “A Separation.” He triumphed again, in the same category, with 2016’s “The Salesman.”

The 24th Sarajevo Film Festival runs Aug. 10-17.

‘Europe! Voices Of Women In Film’ will show the work of 10 directors across different genres.

Sydney Film Festival is working again with European Film Promotion (Efp) to present ‘Europe! Voices Of Women In Film’, a strand as part of this year’s event that will highlight ten European women filmmakers.

For the third year of the initiative, festival director Nashen Moodley made the final selection of 10 from 37 films submitted by 23 Efp member organisations. They include feature debuts as well as more established directors.

Emily Atef will bring her award-winning 3 Days In Quiberon to Sydney, while Dutch director Nanouk Leopold will present her latest feature Cobain,...

Female filmmakers made a commanding showing at the Beijing International Film Festival's closing awards ceremony Sunday night.

Georgian director Ana Urushadze’s critically acclaimed debut Scary Mother was named best picture, with its star Nata Murvanidze taking the best actress prize for her widely praised performance as the film's fearsome lead.

Scary Mother tells the story of a middle-aged Estonian housewife who wars against the constraints of domesticity to fulfill her long-suppressed creative ambitions as a novelist. The film was Georgia's official submission in the foreign-language Oscar race and previously won the Sarajevo Film Festival's top prize and best first-feature honor at...

Marking its 61st year, the San Francisco International Film Festival closed April 17 after screening more than 180 films over the course of its two weeks. The festival opened on April 4 with IFC Films’ “A Kid Like Jake,” which had its world premiere back in January at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is directed by Silas Howard, the celebrated indie director best known for 2001’s “Hook and Crook,” and stars Claire Danes, Jim Parsons, Octavia Spencer, and Priyanka Chopra. The longest-running film festival in the Americas, the Sf Film Festival includes 14 juried awards with close to $40,000 in cash prizes. This year’s Golden Gate New Directors award, its fiction film award, went to Ana Urushadze for “Scary Mother.” The jury noted the project’s “confident tone and unquestioning commitment to its fearless protagonist.” Urushadze is one of 67 female directors included in the 2018 festival. The Documentary Feature award went to Simon Lereng...

There must be something really frightening in a 50-year-old woman deciding to give up her role as diligent housewife and mother, especially when it is the only one she can aspire to in a strictly patriarchal society. Manana (Nata Murvanidze), the heroine of Ana Urushadze’s strikingly daring and assured debut feature, is scary that way. Best First Feature at Locarno, winner of the Sarajevo Film Festival, and later selected as Georgia’s entry for Best Foreign Feature at the Oscars, Urushadze’s Scary Mother joins another 2017 Georgian female-centered festival darling, Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross’s poignant My Happy Family, to deliver an entrancing portrait of a woman who embarks on a mid-age quest to escape from a stultifying male-dominated world.

For Manana, the quest starts with a book. An aspiring writer who sacrificed her literary ambitions for a quiet homely life with a condescending husband and three kids,...

MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are kicking off the 47th New Directors/New Films festival at the end of the month, and IndieWire is excited to premiere the exclusive trailer for this year’s edition. The annual festival spotlights the best films of the year made by first or second-time directors.

This year’s New Directors/New Films will open with Stephen Loveridge’s music documentary “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.,” which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. RaMell Ross’ “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” is the closing night selection. New films by Khalik Allah, Gustav Möller, Helena Wittmann, and more are included in this year’s lineup.

New Directors/New Films 2018 runs March 28 – April 8. Watch the trailer and check out the full lineup below. Visit the festival’s official website to purchase tickets.

Opening Night

“Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.,” Stephen Loveridge...

European Film Promotion highlights 28 European films for the 90th Academy AwardsPutting a spotlight on a record number of 28 European Oscar® entries, Efp (European Film Promotion) offers additional screenings of the films in L.A. for Academy members, journalists, U.S. distributors and international buyers. With the special support of the Efp member organizations, the event helps the productions to stand out among a record number of 92 submissions for the 90th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

This year the Efp Screenings Of Oscar® Entries From Europe were held from November 2–15 at the state of the art Dick Clark Screening Room. The campaign is financially supported by the Creative Europe — Media Programme of the European Union and the participating Efp member organizations.

Many of the European Oscar submissions feature European Shooting Stars or were made by Efp-related filmmakers. Notably four films were realized by participants of this year’s edition...

Scary is not exactly the word for this horror of a woman. Expecting something like a Japanese horror film, I was taken by surprise to learn that the scary part of this mother was her imagination. And to realize further that our imagination is shaped by the traumas of our childhood as ways of coping impacts powerfully on the psyche of whoever is watching it.

What begins as a happy family whose mother has taken time to write ends with the discovery that one’s imagination is more than mere images conjured up by a creative mind. Scary Mother develops this thesis into

A 50-year-old housewife struggles with her dilemma — to choose between her family life and her passion, writing, which she had repressed for years — and decides to follow her passion thus plunging herself into writing, sacrificing to it mentally and physically.

It takes a brave woman to depict...

The final deadline for submitting each country’s film for consideration for the foreign-language Oscar was October 2. Last year 85 were finally deemed eligible by the Academy; this year the number is a record 92. Haiti, Honduras, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Senegal and Syria are first-time entrants. These films are vying for the initial shortlist of 9, and final five nominations to be announced on January 23. See the final list below.

Read More:Oscar Announces Changes for Foreign-Film Voting: Now Simpler! (Sort Of.)

The frontrunners include Sweden selected Ruben Östlund’s hilarious Palme d’Or-winner “The Square” (October 27, Magnolia Pictures), an art-world satire shot in majority Swedish with some English from stars Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, and Dominic West, thus giving Östlund another shot after “Force Majeure” was a surprise 2015 Oscar omission.

Germany’s choice, Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade” (December 27, Magnolia Pictures), won Best Actress for Diane Kruger at Cannes.

The final deadline for submitting each country’s film for consideration for the foreign-language Oscar was October 2. Last year 85 were finally deemed eligible by the Academy; this year the number is a record 92. Haiti, Honduras, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Senegal and Syria are first-time entrants. These films are vying for the initial shortlist of 9, and final five nominations to be announced on January 23. See the final list below.

Read More:Oscar Announces Changes for Foreign-Film Voting: Now Simpler! (Sort Of.)

The frontrunners include Sweden selected Ruben Östlund’s hilarious Palme d’Or-winner “The Square” (October 27, Magnolia Pictures), an art-world satire shot in majority Swedish with some English from stars Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, and Dominic West, thus giving Östlund another shot after “Force Majeure” was a surprise 2015 Oscar omission.

Germany’s choice, Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade” (December 27, Magnolia Pictures), won Best Actress for Diane Kruger at Cannes.

Mrs. Fang director Wang BingBelow you will find the awards for the 70th Locarno Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.AWARDSInternational CompetitionGolden Leopard: Mrs. Fang (Wang Bing) Special Jury Prize: Good Manners (Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra) Best Direction: F.J. Ossang (9 Doigts) Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert (Madame Hyde) Best Actor: Elliott Crosset Hove (Winter Brothers)Filmmakers of the Present Golden Leopard: ¾ (Ilian Metev) Special Jury Prize: Milla (Valerie Massadian) Prize for Best Emerging Director: Kim Dae-hwan (The First Lap) Special Mentions: Distant Constellation (Shevaun Mizrahi), Damned Summer (Pedro Cabeleira)Signs of Life Best Film: Cocote (Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias) Mantarraya Award: Phantasiesätze (Dane Komljen)First Feature Best First Feature: Scary Mother (Ana Urushadze)Art Peace Hotel Award: Meteors (Gürcan Keltek)Special Mention: Those Who Are Fine (Cyril Schäublin)Favorite MOMENTSFestival coverage by Daniel KasmanYacht Strafing, Gym Rivalry, Alcatraz Island: On Jacques Tourneur's Nick Carter, Master...

Back in 1929, author Virginia Woolf famously declared “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” a proto-feminist article of faith which is starkly illustrated in Georgian director Ana Urushadze’s attention-grabbing debut Scary Mother. A compelling mix of domestic drama and psychological thriller, this Georgia-Estonia co-production is already much feted on the festival circuit, taking home the top prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival last week shortly after winning for best first feature at Locarno.

Still in her twenties, Urushadze is the daughter of acclaimed Georgian director Zaza Urushadze, whose 2013...

Meda Or The Not So Bright Side Of Things takes best director and best actor.Scroll down to see the full list of winners.

Ana Urushadze’s Gerogia-Estonia drama Scary Mother has won the top prize at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival, which concludes today (Aug 18).

The film took the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature film, which comes with a financial award of €16,000. It stars Nata Murvanidze as a 50-year-old housewife who experiences family struggles as she tries to complete her first novel.

The main competition saw Romanian director Emanuel Pârvu take the Heart of Sarajevo for best director for his film Meda Or The Not So Bright Side Of Things, which comes with €10,000.

Best actress went to Ornela Kapetani for Daybreak and best actor went to Şerban Pavlu for Meda Or The Not So Bright Side Of Things.

The jury, led by Michel Franco and featuring Mark Adams, Gordan Bogdan...

Screen speaks to up-and-coming producers from Serbia, Greece, Georgia, Turkey and Bulgaria.

Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink industry programme is in full flow. Below, Screen highlights five emerging producers from the region who are making waves.

Nataša Damnjanović (Serbia)

Serbian producer Nataša Damnjanović (pictured, top) started out as an editor, and since she founded the production company Dart Film together with Vladimir Vidić in 2006, she is still doing the editing on most of their films as well.

Damnjanović trained at Sarajevo and Berlinale Talents, Torino FilmLab and Eave, and first produced Nikola Ljuca’s short Sergeant in 2010 (which competed at Tampere), as well three shorts by Dane Komljen - A Surplus of Wind (2014), Our Body (2015), and All Still Orbit (2016), which screened at Locarno, Rotterdam, and Sarajevo.

Ljuca’s first feature Humidity world-premiered in Berlinale’s Forum in 2016 and won four national Serbian awards, including best film and best director. The same year, Komljen’s debut...

Screen speaks to up-and-coming producers from Serbia, Greece, Georgia, Turkey and Bulgaria.

Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink industry programme is in full flow. Below, Screen highlights five emerging producers from the region who are making waves.

Nataša Damnjanović (Serbia)

Serbian producer Nataša Damnjanović (pictured, top) started out as an editor, and since she founded the production company Dart Film together with Vladimir Vidić in 2006, she is still doing the editing on most of their films as well.

Damnjanović trained at Sarajevo and Berlinale Talents, Torino FilmLab and Eave, and first produced Nikola Ljuca’s short Sergeant in 2010 (which competed at Tampere), as well three shorts by Dane Komljen - A Surplus of Wind (2014), Our Body (2015), and All Still Orbit (2016), which screened at Locarno, Rotterdam, and Sarajevo.

Ljuca’s first feature Humidity world-premiered in Berlinale’s Forum in 2016 and won four national Serbian awards, including best film and best director. The same year, Komljen’s debut...

Update: Audience award winner revealed; Good Manners, Winter Brothers also among winners.

Documentary filmmaker Wang Bing became the fifth director from China in Locarno’s seven-decade history to win the top honour of the Golden Leopard at this year’s edition.

Mrs. Fang, which is the first documentray ever to win the festival’s top prize, follows the last days of a 67-year-old Alzheimer’s patient in southern China.

Previous Golden Leopard winners from China were Hongqui Li with Winter Vacation in 2010 and Xiaolu Guo with She, a Chinese a year before, as well as Shuo Wang with Father in 2000 and Yue Lü with Mr Zhao in 1998.

The decision by the international competition jury, headed by director Olivier Assayas, reflects a trend at international festivals of recent years for documentaries beating out competition from fiction productions.

While the special jury prize went to the Brazilian writing and directing team Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra’s Good Manners about...

A bold feature debut by emerging Georgian filmmaker Ana Urushadze putting an original yet bleak spin on the process of emancipation

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

A housewife becomes a monster in Scary Mother, the feature debut of Ana Urushadze. Variety reports today that Alief LLC has moved into the sales business by acquiring the international rights to the psychological thriller out of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. The deal includes festival representation, and a national release is planned for September. […]...