Sarajevo Jovan Marjanović — the director who inherited a siege-era festival
He took the festival from Purivatra in 2022 and ran the 32nd edition with 250 films from 70 countries, five Honorary Hearts, and a 4K No Man's Land closing.
Jovan Marjanović became the director of the Sarajevo Film Festival in February 2022, succeeding Mirsad Purivatra, who founded the festival during the siege in 1995 and ran it for twenty-seven editions. The transition was reported by Variety at the time. It was the festival’s first leadership change in its history.
Purivatra did not disappear. At the 32nd edition in August 2026, it was Purivatra — not Marjanović — who presented the Honorary Heart to Emily Watson at the National Theatre. The founder hands the award; the director runs the festival. Both roles are visible on the same night.
The 32nd edition
By August 2026, Marjanović had expanded the festival to 250 films from 70 countries, with 51 films competing for the Heart of Sarajevo across four sections and 1,215 submissions for the competition programme alone. He programmed five Honorary Hearts — Watson, Farhadi, Luna, Harrelson, Hadžihafizbegović — and booked Pawlikowski’s Fatherland (Cannes Best Director) as the opener and the 4K restoration of No Man’s Land (Bosnia’s only Oscar winner) as the closer.
In a Deadline interview during the festival, Marjanović called the lineup “vibrant” and noted an uptick in female directors — six of the nine narrative-feature competition films were directed by women (per Deadline, August 2026). In a Variety preview, the magazine framed the festival as continuing to “forge its own way” within the European festival circuit — smaller than Venice or Berlin, but with a curatorial identity built on the region’s cinema.
The inheritance
The festival Marjanović inherited is not a normal one. It was founded in October 1995, five months after the siege ended, by Purivatra and a small team working from a bombed-out city with no functioning cinema infrastructure. The founding act — screening films in a city that had been shelled for 1,425 days — was itself a piece of cultural recovery. By the time Purivatra stepped down, the festival had grown into Southeast Europe’s largest film event, with an industry programme (CineLink), a talent platform, and an honorary roll that includes Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Steve McQueen, Wim Wenders, Béla Tarr, and Stellan Skarsgård.
Marjanović’s job is to run the institution Purivatra built without losing the founding identity. The interviews suggest he understands the assignment: he speaks of “meaningful, long-term relationships with filmmakers” rather than chasing premieres (per Deadline), and of the festival’s role as a bridge between the region’s cinema and the wider European market.
What to know
Marjanović is Bosnian. He joined the festival’s team before becoming its director and was involved in CineLink and the festival’s industry programmes. Beyond the festival, details of his earlier career are not widely documented in English-language sources. His public profile is the festival itself.
The Honorary Heart roll now stands at 55 recipients across 22 years. The festival’s next edition will be the 33rd.
Sources & further reading
- THR — Sarajevo Film Festival Boss Jovan Marjanović Owns Their Origin Story (August 2026)
- Deadline — Sarajevo Film Festival Director Jovan Marjanović Talks 'Vibrant' Lineup (August 2026)
- Variety — Sarajevo Film Festival Head on How Southeast Europe's Leading Cinematic Showcase Continues to 'Forge Its Own Way' (August 2026)
- Variety — Mirsad Purivatra Steps Down as Director of Sarajevo Film Festival (February 2022)
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