Sarajevo Film Festival Unveils Competition Jury

The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the jury of its feature film competition jury.

Director and screenwriter Sebastian Meise will serve as jury president and fellow jurors include director, screenwriter and producer Lucile Hadžihalilović, writer-director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, actor Milan Marić and producer and senior consultant for international co-productions Katriel Schory.

Meise debuted with “Still Life,” which premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and won several awards. His documentary film “Outing” was presented at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto. His latest feature film “Great Freedom” was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the Jury Prize – Un Certain Regard. The film was also awarded the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature Film and best actor for Georg Friedrich, as well as the CICAE Arthouse Award at the 27th Sarajevo Film Festival.

Hadžihalilović’s debut mini-feature “La Bouche De Jean-Pierre” premiered at the Un Certain Regard strand in Cannes in 1996. In 2004, “Innocence” won best first Film in San Sebastian. “Evolution” won the special jury prize at San Sebastian in 2015, an honor also accorded to her latest film “Earwig” (2021).

Kusijanović’s feature debut, “Murina,” executive produced by Martin Scorsese, premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2021 and won the Caméra d’Or Award for best debut film.

Marić has starred in “The Man Who Defended Gavrilo Princip” (2014), “A Good Wife” (2016), “Humidity” (2016), “Dovlatov” (2018), and “Toma” (2021), among others. He was listed among the ten European Shooting Stars at the 2019 edition of the Berlinale.

Schory is the executive director of the Israel Film Fund and has authorized the production of more than 300 films in Israel and worldwide.

Meise said: “I have always had a personal connection to the Sarajevo Film Festival and I am deeply honored to be part of the jury this year. Sarajevo is a special place and the unique founding spirit of the festival is omnipresent here. It is the deeply humanistic belief that film can do what politics cannot: unite people.”

The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival will take place between August 12-19.

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