Sarajevo Film Festival 2026 - MCF Screenings

NUMEROUS FILMS AT SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL FROM MCF DISTRIBUTION

As many as 34 titles from MCF's distribution will be screened at this year’s SFF, including the Cannes winner!

The Sarajevo Film Festival will take place this year from August 14 to 21, and the film that will open it ceremonially is the masterpiece HOMELAND by Polish director Pavela Pavlikovskog, who this year won the Cannes prize for Best Director for this acclaimed work starring Sandra Hiler and Hans Cišler. The drama HOMELAND is just one of thirty-four films whose screenings the distributor MCF arranged with the largest film festival in Southeast Europe, thereby further strengthening the long-established cooperation between the renowned, important and influential festival and the region’s largest distributor of independent art film.

Of the nine films competing for the Heart of Sarajevo award in the feature film category, two from MCF’s distribution will have their regional premieres: DUA, a coming-of-age drama by writer-director-producer Blerte Bašoli, and EVERY TIME, an Austrian drama by director Sandra Volner that won this year’s Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes. Certainly the most attractive film to be shown in the Summer Screen sidebar program is FJORD, the new film by Romanian director Kristijan Munđua, which this year won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and has thus automatically become a serious contender for the upcoming awards season, above all for the most prestigious prize: the Oscar.

The "In Focus" program of the 52nd Sarajevo Film Festival will also screen the biographical historical drama ROSE by director Markus Šlajncera, which comes from Germany and follows a woman disguised as a man in the 17th century who only wants to be a model citizen. For that film, the gifted Sandra Hiler won Best Actress at this year’s Berlin festival, so in Sarajevo the audience will be able to see her two freshest performances in two different, yet very similarly high-quality films. The same program also includes the drama MOTHER TERESA by Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and follows five days in the life of a 44-year-old ambitious woman preparing to leave the Monastery of Saint Mary and found her own religious order. In the program “Confronting the Past” the intriguing documentary THE MATCH by directors Huana Kabrala and Santjaga Franka will be screened — a film about the now-legendary World Cup quarterfinal between Argentina and England in Mexico 1986, which came as a culmination of tensions between the two countries after the Falklands War in 1982.

At one of the festival’s long-favorite locations, the Summer Screen program, audiences will this August, in addition to the aforementioned Cannes winner, be able to enjoy other films shown in the official competition of that most prestigious world festival: SHEEP IN A BOX by Hirokazua Koreede, NIGHT TALES by Lee Miziju, GENTLE MONSTER by Mari Krojcer, ONE MORE DAY by Žan Eri, and SUDDENLY by Rjusukea Hamagučija, for which Viržini Efira and Tao Okamoto shared Best Actress at Cannes. With screenings under the stars and a relaxed atmosphere, there is no doubt that the audience will once again receive the very best that the current independent film offering has to offer. The Kinoscope program is largely filled with films from MCF’s distribution, with as many as eleven titles: THE SLEEPING ADVENTURE by German director Valeske Grizebah, an adventurous crime thriller that won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes; the horror TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIAZMA by Džejn Šenbrun starring Džilijan Anderson; the acclaimed historical drama THE SILENT FRIEND by Hungarian director Ildiko Enjedi, which won six awards at Venice including the FIPRESCI prize; the witty Spanish drama FLIES by director Fernanda Ajmbkea, who recently won at the Cinehill Film Festival and received the Ecumenical Jury Prize in Berlin; the horror CHILD OF THE NIGHT by director Hana Bergholm, screened in Berlin’s official competition; the French horror SPECIES by director Marion Le Korole; the African drama THE BOY FROM CONGO by director Rafiki Fariala; the French drama GRADIVA by director Marina Atlan; the French mystery drama WHISPER by director Lejla Buzid; the Australian horror LEVITATE by director Adrijan Kjarela; and the war drama COWARD by Belgian director Lukas Donta, whose actors Emanuel Makija and Valentin Kampanj shared Best Actor at this year’s Cannes.

The Open Air program at the Summer Cinema again offers an unforgettable experience of watching films under the stars, and on the largest screen in the region the audience will be able to see MCF titles such as PALESTINE ’36. by director An-Mari Žasir, the Spanish drama A MOUTH FULL OF ASHES by popular Mexican actor-director Dijega Lune; the romantic comedy NO GOOD MEN by director Šahrbanu Sadat; and along with HOMELAND perhaps the program’s most attention-grabbing film MINOTAUR by Russian director Andreja Zvjaginceva, which won the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes, the festival’s second most prestigious prize after the Palme d’Or. In addition, the Sarajevo festival will this year host the famous Iranian director Asgara Farhadija, who will receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo; his retrospective will include his well-known titles THE PAST, THE TRAVELING SALESMAN, and A HERO, as well as his latest PARALLEL STORIES, screened in Cannes’ official competition this year. With a total of thirty-four films across different Sarajevo Festival programs, there is no doubt that MCF once again proves it is the most prominent and strongest regional distributor when it comes to independent film releases.