Sarajevo Film Festival

The Sarajevo Film Festival is the premier and largest film festival in the Balkans, and is one of the largest in Europe. It was founded in Sarajevo in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo, and brings international and local celebrities to Sarajevo every year. It is held in August and shows feature and short films. The current director is Mirsad Purivatra. The first Sarajevo Film Festival was held from October 25 to November 5 1995. At that time, the siege of Sarajevo was still going on, and attendance projections were very low. However, a surprising 15,000 people came to see the films, of which there were 37 from 15 different countries. The festival grew at a remarkable pace, attracting tens of thousands of people a year, as well as foreign celebrities such as U2's Bono, and Willem Dafoe. By 2001, the European Film Association made the Sarajevo Film Festival one of the eleven festivals that could nominate a film for the award of "Europe's Best Short Film". In 2002, the Festival's choice... full article at wikipedia