The Sarajevo Film Festival, the region’s largest film fair, for the first time allows the participation of Ukrainian films and provides support to their makers.
The festival, which has grown to include the film industry from Vienna to Istanbul, was set up near the end of the Bosnian war in 1995 as a show of defiance by activists resisting a 43-month siege by Bosnian Serb forces on the capital.
“It has become clear since the beginning of the war in Ukraine that something must be done in solidarity with colleagues in the Ukrainian film industry,” festival director Yovan Marjanovic told Archyde.com.
The festival, which started on Friday, decided to open its competitive program to works from Ukraine and to grant artistic residency status to Ukrainian filmmakers to enable them to work and develop their films.
He also offered jobs for Ukrainian professionals who became refugees but previously worked at film festivals in Kiev and Odessa.
The festival will screen 235 films from 62 countries, 51 of which will participate in competitions.