12th Sarajevo Film Festival - CineLink Joins Hands with Vienna Film Fund

As part of the 12th Sarajevo Film Festival the CineLink co-production market took place. This was the occasion for Dr Peter Zawrel, head of the Vienna Film Fund, to present the latter’s activities.

The CineLink co-production market is the meeting place for filmers on the look out for new projects and for promising films from the region.

During the four days of the co-production market’s extensive programme 11 projects from 9 south-east European countries were introduced. Peter Zawrel had exchanges with working groups of filmers from Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.

Vienna goes east

The Vienna Film Fund has a special esteem for the filmers from south-east Europe on account of their creativity and their ability to spot a “special local story” which makes their films so popular. The Bulgarian producers Galina Toneva and Kiril Stankov showed the greatest interest in obtaining support from the Vienna Film Fund and expressed concrete cooperation wishes.

The Zagreb film director Bobo Jelcic – who had appeared at the Festival of Vienna with his play “Uncertain Story” – underlined his desire for cooperation.

Vienna Film Fund co-production nominated for Oscar
The film “Grbavica” by the Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic, which was chosen as the Best Film at the 2006 Berlinale, is a product of a ten-year-long co-production with the Vienna Film Fund. On 26 August “Grbavica” was nominated by the Film-makers Association in Sarajevo for an American Film Academy Oscar.

The Vienna Film Fund promotes creative co-productions in order to give Vienna production units a chance of successfully presenting and positioning themselves.

2006 Sarajevo Film Festival

During the 2006 Sarajevo Film Festival cineastes were able to see 165 films from all over the world in 14 categories. Twelve countries were represented: Albania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Among the awards made during the film festival two are particularly worthy of note:
The winner of the festival by popular vote was the British film “The Way to Guantánamo”. The “Heart of Sarajevo” prize went to the young director Andrea Staka for her film “Gospodjica” (Young Lady).

Stars such as Nick Nolte

In addition to the cast of “The Way to Guantánamo” and the winner of the Golden Bear of Berlin, Jasmila Zbanic, the “Red Carpet” of Sarajevo was trodden by the singers of the Irish pop-group U2, Bono Vox, and Hollywood star Nick Nolte. Among the guests were also the star director Abel Ferrara, and the Oscar award-winner Danis Tanovic who showed his new film “Pakao” (Inferno).

• 12th Sarajevo Film Festival