Sarajevo Film Festival 2026 — five Hearts, 250 films, and the Oscar winner that came home in 4K
The 32nd edition gave five Honorary Hearts — to Watson, Farhadi, Luna, Harrelson, and Hadžihafizbegović — opened with Pawlikowski's Cannes winner, and closed with Tanović's Oscar winner restored in 4K.
The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival ran from 14 to 21 August 2026. It screened 250 films from 70 countries, with 51 films competing for the Heart of Sarajevo across four sections: narrative feature, feature and short documentary, narrative short, and student short. The competition included 21 world premieres. Six of the nine narrative-feature competition films were directed by women. Festival director Jovan Marjanović called the lineup “vibrant” in interviews with Deadline and Variety.
Five people received the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo. Between them, they carry two Oscars, three Oscar nominations, one Golden Bear, one Emmy, and one OBE.
The five Hearts
Emily Watson — British actress, jury president of the Competition Programme for feature film. Her debut Breaking the Waves won the very first competitive Heart of Sarajevo in 1996. Thirty years later she received the honorary one. Former festival director Mirsad Purivatra presented it. She spoke through tears and dedicated the award to Catherine. She brought her children to Sarajevo because, she said, of all the film festivals in the world, this one has its spiritual heart in the right place.
Asghar Farhadi — Iranian director, two-time Oscar winner for A Separation and The Salesman. He collected the Heart in a packed National Theatre and told the red-carpet interviewer: “Between the Oscar and the Heart of Sarajevo, tonight I would choose the Heart of Sarajevo.” A retrospective of seven of his films screened in the Tribute to programme.
Diego Luna — Mexican actor of Y Tu Mamá También, Rogue One, and Andor. He received the Heart on 15 August and presented his latest directorial feature Ashes, which had premiered at Cannes. He also gave a masterclass. The third Mexican honouree, after Gael García Bernal (2014) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (2019).
Woody Harrelson — American actor, three-time Oscar nominee. The 32nd edition screened Welcome to Sarajevo (Winterbottom, 1997) alongside his award in the Open Air programme — the film in which Harrelson plays a war journalist in the besieged city. He also gave a masterclass, paying tribute to Rob Reiner.
Emir Hadžihafizbegović — Bosnian actor, a fixture of Bosnian cinema since the 1990s: Remake, Grbavica, Fuse, Armin, Quo Vadis, Aida?. He graduated from the Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts in Kusturica’s class (1986), worked through the war, and is the first Bosnian actor on the honorary roll.
Opening and closing
The festival opened with Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, starring Sandra Hüller, a film about a Nobel-winning writer and his daughter on a road trip across 1949 Europe. Pawlikowski won Best Director at Cannes for it. His connection to the festival spans 34 years: Serbian Epics (1992), Cold War opened the 24th (2018), Honorary Heart (2019), Fatherland opens the 32nd (2026).
It closed with the world premiere of the digitally restored 4K version of Danis Tanović’s No Man’s Land (2001) — Bosnia’s only Oscar winner, twenty-five years after it premiered at the same festival and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The festival in one paragraph
A festival founded in a besieged city in 1995 reaches its 32nd edition in 2026 with 250 films from 70 countries, five Honorary Hearts, a Watson-to-Watson circle (first competitive Heart in 1996, honorary in 2026), an Iranian director who chooses it over the Oscar, a Bosnian actor who represents the first local actor on the honorary roll, an American who starred in the city’s war film coming back to collect the Heart, and the country’s only Oscar winner returning in 4K. The Honorary Heart roll now stands at 55 recipients across 22 years.
Sources & further reading
- SFF Official — 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival: 51 Films in Competition for the Heart of Sarajevo Awards
- Variety — Sarajevo Film Festival Head on How Southeast Europe's Leading Cinematic Showcase Continues to 'Forge Its Own Way'
- Deadline — Sarajevo Film Festival Director Jovan Marjanović Talks 'Vibrant' Lineup
- SFF Official — No Man's Land Returns in a Restored Version to Close the 32nd SFF
- First Balkan Media — Sarajevo Film Festival 2026: 250 Films, 70 Countries (14 August 2026)
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