The documentary “Cinema under Siege” won the Best Project Award in the Talent Hub Central & Eastern Europe section at the 2021 Sunny Side of the Doc co-production market.
The film by Srđan Šarenac is about a group of artists in 1993 determined to organize the first Sarajevo Film Festival despite the siege of Sarajevo.
“I wanted the film to be an inspiration to others who find themselves in war zones, and to show them that it’s easier to survive the horrors of war with the help of culture and cinema, in the same way that we survived the siege of Sarajevo. This film is a tribute to the courageous artists led by Haris Pasovic, who organized the first Sarajevo Film Festival in the middle of the war in 1993,” Šarenac told the Croatian Audiovisual Centre.
“Cinema under Siege” is produced by Udruženje Novi Film (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Metar60 (Croatia), Novi Film (Bosnia-Herzegovina) and Al Jazeera Balkans (Bosnia-Herzegovina).
Discover the trailer here.
A member of the Croatian Directors’ Guild, this is not Šarenac’s first feature documentary. He co-produced and directed “Village Without Women” (2010) and “The Road Movie” (2016). Shown in the official competition at the IDFA and screened in 80 festivals, “The Road Movie” won 14 awards and was also nominated for an Oscar.
Sunny Side of the Doc
Sunny Side of the Doc is an international production market for “documentary and narrative experiences” usually held every year in La Rochelle. This year the co-production market took place online from June 21st to 24th. Over 1,500 industry professionals from 58 countries attended the 32nd edition, discovering more than 70 projects from 22 different countries. The 50 sessions of the 2021 edition are available in replay on the event website.
The Talent Hub Central & Eastern Europe specifically supports countries with low production capacity: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
For more information on the audiovisual news in Croatia, click here.
Sources: havc.hr, ba.n1info.com, moderntimes.review
