Sarajevo Film Festival is back for its 32nd edition, running August 14–21, 2026.
British actress Emily Watson will serve as President of the Jury for the Competition Programme Feature Film, and will also receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, one of the festival’s highest recognitions. We can’t wait to see what the city becomes during that week.
The entire festival spreads across Sarajevo: from the National Theatre of Sarajevo to open-air screenings, cultural venues, and pop-up cinema spaces across the city. It’s not a single location event, it turns Sarajevo into a moving map of screenings, premieres, and industry meetings. What really defines it, though, is the structure underneath the films.
A major part of the festival runs through CineLink Industry Days, where more than a thousand film professionals gather for development markets, pitching sessions, co-production meetings, and industry networking. It’s where films are not just shown, they’re financed, reshaped, and pushed toward future festival runs.
Alongside that sits CineLink’s ecosystem: producers’ labs, drama development programs, documentary rough-cut sessions, and talent initiatives that bring emerging filmmakers from across Southeast Europe into direct contact with international decision-makers.
The films themselves reflect that same ecosystem — regional co-productions, European arthouse cinema, debut features, and documentaries that lean heavily into identity, memory, politics, migration, and post-transition realities. A lot of projects that later break out in Berlin, Venice, or Cannes often pass through Sarajevo early in their lifecycle.
Watch, connect, build and learn at SFF!
