Sandra Wollner’s Everytime Wins Top Prize at Sarajevo Film Festival
Austrian director Sandra Wollner won the Heart of Sarajevo for best narrative feature film with “Everytime” at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival on Friday evening, continuing an international winning streak that previously included a triumph in Cannes, according to festival reports and coverage from outlets including Variety and nachrichten.at.
A Grief-Soaked Ghost Story Takes Southeastern Europe’s Top Prize
The closing ceremony of the festival inside the Nationaltheater of the Bosnian capital marked another major milestone for Wollner’s third feature film. Born in Leoben in 1983 and currently based in Berlin, the director follows up her earlier works “Das unmögliche Bild” and “The Trouble with Being Born” with a film that explores trauma, memory, and loss. According to nachrichten.at, “Everytime” features cinematography by Gregory Oke, blending warm colors, video footage, and past realities.
The jury, headed by two-time Academy Award nominee Emily Watson, made the selection unanimously. In their official citation provided to Variety, the jury described the work as moments of cinematic grace floating through a mesmeric, elastic, and transcendental grief-soaked ghost story.
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Variety’s chief film critic Guy Lodge noted that the drama confirms the Austrian director’s formidable formal control and imagination, projecting it to be her most widely distributed work to date.
Broader Awards Landscape at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival
The festival, which originated in 1995 during the siege of the city in the Bosnian War, has grown into Southeastern Europe’s most significant cinematic gathering. Alongside Wollner’s victory, the jury doled out several other high-profile honors across competitive slates. Georgian filmmaker Ana Urushadze won the Heart of Sarajevo for best director for “Supporting Role,” a project praised by the jury for its irreverent blending of the banal and the oneiric.
Acting accolades recognized emerging and established talent alike. Eva Kostić claimed the best actress prize for her performance in “17,” a North Macedonian feature directed by Kosara Mitić. The jury characterized Kostić’s work as a raw, visceral, and deeply instinctive portrayal of a teenager navigating the aftermath of a sexual assault on a class trip. Meanwhile, Adrian Văncică secured the best actor honor for his role in Florin Şerban’s Locarno Golden Leopard winner, “You Don’t Belong Here.” The documentary competition saw directing duo Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić take home the top documentary feature prize for “To Hold a Mountain,” a Montenegrin highlands narrative previously recognized at Sundance.