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The festival, which has grown to cover the
sector from Vienna to Istanbul, was founded towards the end of
the Bosnian war in 1995 as an act of defiance by enthusiasts
resisting a 43-month siege of the capital by Bosnian Serb
forces.
"At the onset of the war in Ukraine it has become clear that
something must be done in solidarity with colleagues from film
industry in Ukraine," Jovan Marjanovic, the festival director,
told Reuters.
The festival, which was starting on Friday, decided to open its
competition programme for work from Ukraine and provided
artist-in residence status to Ukrainian filmmakers to enable
them to work and further develop their films.
It also offered jobs to Ukrainian professionals who have become
refugees but previously worked at film festivals in Kyiv and
Odessa.
Script writers and filmmakers Marysia Nikitiuk and Maria
Stoyanova arrived in Sarajevo several months ago to develop
their projects and present them at the industry platform
Cinelink, which brings together writers and producers alongside
the film screenings.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine halted Stoyanova's work on her
debut feature as the funding was frozen, the editing director
joined the army and the producers got involved in volunteering
and filming the war.
"The residency and participation in the workshop became
significant support for me as an artist," Stoyanova told
Reuters. "This opportunity to work and think helps to healmental
wounds."
Nikitiuk hopes to find partners and co-producers for her script
dealing with people with post-traumatic stress disorder,
inspired by displaced women and children she encountered in a
shelter in an Ukrainian village where she had hidden at the
start of the war.
On Friday, the festival was due to honour Ukrainian filmmaker
Sergei Loznitsa with the Heart of Sarajevo Award.
Swedish director Ruben Ostlund will also be honoured. His film
"Triangle of Sadness", which won this year's Palme D'Or for Best
Picture at Cannes, will open the event.
The festival, which will show 235 films from 62 countries, 51 of
them in competition, will also celebrate Danish actor Mads
Mikkelsen and U.S. Oscar-nominated actor and director Jesse
Eisenberg.
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Alison Williams)
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