Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF, August 16-23) has unveiled the line-up for its 25th edition, with nine feature world premieres playing in the two main competitive sections.

These include Romanian filmmaker Catalin Mitulescu’s fourth film "Heidi" in the feature competition, about an ageing police officer tasked with finding two prostitutes who he needs to testify in an organised crime case. Also debuting in the feature film competition is Bosnian filmmaker Ines Tanovic’s sophomore film as director "Son", about the life of an adopted teenager in modern Sarajevo.

The festival will play 25 titles across its feature film and documentary film competitive sections – nine in the former and 16 in the latter. Of the 16 documentary titles, 10 are of feature length (more than 60 minutes). There are four world premieres in the feature film section, and five feature world premieres in the documentary section.

Films to play in the festival having launched elsewhere on the circuit include Bosnian director Ena Sendijarević’s "Take Me Somewhere Nice", which won a special mention at Rotterdam Film Festival where it premiered in January; and Tamara Koteska and Ljubomir Stefanov’s documentary "Honeyland" about Europe’s last female bee hunter, which won three prizes on debut in January at Sundance Film Festival – the cinematography, special jury and grand jury prizes in the world cinema documentary section.

In total, 53 films will compete for the Heart of Sarajevo awards at this year’s festival, across the feature, documentary, short and student film sections. The 53 titles were chosen from 950 submissions, of which 150 were features, 180 documentaries, 420 shorts and 200 student titles.

The full line-up is available on the SFF site.

Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund will chair the jury at this year’s SFF, which also includes outgoing Rotterdam festival director Bero Beyer, Netflix executive Funa Maduka, Serbian actress Jovana Stojiljkovic and North Macedonian filmmaker Teona Strugar Mitevska.

2019 Competition programme (feature films)

Feature film

• A Tale Of Three Sisters by Emin Alper (Tur, Ger, Neth, Gre) 
• And Then We Danced by Levan Akin (Geo, Swe, Fr) 
• Cat In The Wall by Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova (Bul, UK, Fr) 
• Heidi by Cătălin Mitulescu (Rom), world premiere 
• Mo by Radu Dragomir (Rom) 
• Open Door by Florenc Papas (Alb, It, Kos, Mac), world premiere 
• Rounds by Stephan Komandarev (Bul, Ser), world premiere 
• Son by Ines Tanović (Bos-Her, Cro, Rom, Slovenia, Mont), world premiere 
• Take Me Somewhere Nice by Ena Sendijarević (Bos-Her, Neth) 

Documentary film (feature-length titles)

• A Small Documentary About 3 Letters by Goran Bregović (Bos-Her, Ser, Fr), world premiere
  
  
• Daughter Of Camorra by Siniša Gačić (Slov, Ita), world premiere
  
  
• Honeyland by Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska (N. Mace)
   
• How Far The Stars by Katalin Barsony (Hun, US), world premiere
  
  
• Palace For The People by Boris Missirkov, Georgi Bogdanov (Bul, Rom, Ger)
  
  
• Queen Lear by Pelin Esmer (Tur), world premiere
  
  
• The Euphoria Of Being by Réka Szabó (Hun)
  
  
• The Golden Girl by Denisa Morariu-Tamas, Adrian Robe (Rom), world premiere
  
  
• The Soviet Garden by Dragoș Turea (Mold, Rom), world premiere
  
  
• When The Persimmons Grew by Hilal Baydarov (Az, Austria)
  
  
• When Tomatoes Met Wagner by Marianna Economou (Gr)