Sarajevo Honorary Heart — Emily Watson (2026)

Emily Watson received the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival (14–21 August 2026) in the National Theatre Sarajevo. Former festival director Mirsad Purivatra presented the award. Watson spoke through tears.

“I brought my children here because I feel that, of all the film festivals in the world, this is the festival that has its spiritual heart in the right place.” — Emily Watson, acceptance speech, Klix.ba, August 2026

She dedicated the award to Catherine. She did not say more about who Catherine is. One fact for context: Watson first came to Sarajevo in 2005, as a curator of the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation — the organisation named for the British actress who co-starred with her in Breaking the Waves and who died of septicaemia in 2002 at the age of 41 (per THR, August 2026).

Her friend Jessie Buckley, she told the audience, had once described acting as going to work with your heart in your hand. Watson called it a privilege to be part of that army of storytellers. “We go to war with a story to hold up a mirror,” she said. “This city, as Stellan said, knows more than any other the power and vital nature of that fight.”

After the ceremony, the National Theatre screened Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996) — the film that won the very first competitive Heart of Sarajevo for best feature, thirty years ago. The actress who carried the film that opened the award’s competitive roll now joins the honorary one.

Watson also chaired the Competition Programme jury for feature film at the 32nd edition, and on 19 August gave a masterclass at the Bosnian Cultural Centre. She told the audience about growing up in a religious organisation that forbade popular music and books — she read in secret — and how acting was her way out. “Acting saved me,” she said. Of her decision to take the Breaking the Waves role despite being told not to: “I was very disturbed, but I felt an incredible sense of freedom at the same time. I knew I had to trust that feeling.”

She is the British actress of Breaking the Waves (1996), Hilary and Jackie (1998), Gosford Park (2001), Chernobyl (2019), and Small Things Like These (2024, opposite Cillian Murphy). She has been nominated for the Oscar twice. She won the Silver Bear at Berlin for Small Things Like These, the European Film Award for Breaking the Waves, and a BAFTA for Appropriate Adult (2011). She was appointed OBE for services to drama in 2015. Her theatre work includes Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night at the Donmar Warehouse under Sam Mendes, and numerous productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2024 she received the honorary Joseph Plateau Award at the Ghent Film Festival. In 2025, the Richard Harris Award at BIFA.

Also honoured in 2026

• Asghar Farhadi Film director and screenwriter
• Diego Luna Actor, director and producer
• Emir Hadžihafizbegović Actor
• Woody Harrelson Actor, screenwriter, director and playwright

Sources & further reading

• Honorary Heart of Sarajevo — official recipients list
• Klix.ba — Britanskoj glumici Emily Watson dodijeljeno Počasno Srce Sarajeva (ceremony report, August 2026)
• Klix.ba — Emily Watson Masterclass, Sarajevo Film Festival (August 2026)
• Heart of Sarajevo — Wikipedia (Honorary Heart section)
• Emily Watson — Wikipedia