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Sarajevo film festival opens
2007-08-17
The 13th annual Sarajevo film festival opened here Friday with 175 films from some 40 countries and lucrative rewards being offered to competition winners. The nine-day festival kicked off with the world premiere of "It is hard to be nice" by Bosnian director Srdjan Vuletic. The program includes sixteen more world premieres. Prizes of 25,000 euros (30,000 dollars) for best film and 2,500 euros for best actor and actress are to be awarded by a jury chaired by Oscar-winning British actor Jeremy Irons. A special jury award worth 10,000 euros is also on offer. Only 10 films produced in southeastern Europe are competing for the awards. Special guests will include firebrand US director Michael Moore, US actor Steve Buscemi and French actress Juliette Binoche. The festival was launched by a group of enthusiasts in 1995 during the three-and-a-half-year siege of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serb forces. Despite its troubled beginnings it has become the biggest such event in the Balkans.
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