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Everytime Wins Heart of Sarajevo for Best Narrative Feature at 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival

Maitri Modi
Everytime Wins Best Film at Sarajevo Film Festival

Austrian director Sandra Wollner’s Everytime has won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Narrative Feature Film at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, receiving the award unanimously from the festival jury. The film also took home the festival’s €16,000 top prize at the awards ceremony held at the National Theatre Sarajevo on August 21. The festival ran from August 14 to 21 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Sarajevo victory extends a strong festival run for Wollner’s third feature. Everytime had previously won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, adding another major festival recognition to its campaign.

The film follows a mother, her young daughter and a teenage boy who are brought together by tragedy and travel to the Canary Islands for a family holiday that never took place. Against the backdrop of the coastal landscape, the boundaries between past and present gradually begin to overlap.

The jury was led by Emily Watson and included Igor Bezinović, Sara Klimoska, Matthijs Wouter Knol and Athina Rachel Tsangari. In its citation, the jury praised the film for its cinematic approach to grief and described the decision as unanimous.

Following its Cannes premiere, Variety chief film critic Guy Lodge described Wollner’s film as a poised and haunting drama, highlighting the director’s formal control and imagination.

The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director went to Georgian filmmaker Ana Urushadze for Supporting Role, a co-production between Georgia, Estonia and Türkiye. The award carried a €10,000 prize. The film had previously won two prizes at the International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier this year.

Romanian actor Adrian Văncică won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor, along with a €2,500 prize, for his performance in You Don’t Belong Here, directed by Florin Șerban. The film had already won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival earlier this month. The Sarajevo jury praised Văncică’s performance for its restraint and consistency within a film built around long and wide shots.

The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress went to Eva Kostić for her performance in 17, directed by Kosara Mitić. The film is a co-production between North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.

In the documentary categories, the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Feature went to directing duo Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić for To Hold a Mountain. The film explores sisterhood and solitude in the Montenegrin highlands and has already received major recognition, including the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Grand Prix at Poland’s Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival. It is also eligible for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. The Sarajevo award carried a €4,000 prize.

Croatian filmmaker Karla Jelić won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Short Documentary for Holy Defiance, receiving a €2,000 prize. The jury described the film as a powerful work centred on an act of defiance against resurgent male misogyny.

The Special Award for Promoting Gender Equality went to 17, directed by Kosara Mitić, while the Special Youth Perspectives Award went to Dina Duma’s Skateboarding Is Not for Girls. The Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award 2026 was presented to Lebanese director Lana Daher.

The festival also presented an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo to Bosnian-Herzegovinian actor Emir Hadžihafizbegović, recognising his lifetime contribution to film and his work in Bosnian-Herzegovinian and regional cinema. He joined this year’s other Honorary Heart recipients, Emily Watson, Diego Luna, Woody Harrelson and Asghar Farhadi.

The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival concluded with a screening of a restored version of Danis Tanović’s 2002 Academy Award-winning film No Man’s Land.

Full Winners List

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