{"id":5583,"date":"2026-08-19T10:09:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T10:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5583"},"modified":"2026-08-19T10:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T10:09:47","slug":"why-emily-watson-will-never-quit-sarajevo-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5583","title":{"rendered":"Why Emily Watson Will Never Quit Sarajevo Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\nEmily Watson has been a friend of the Sarajevo Film Festival since its inception.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5581\">San Sebastian Film Festival to Open With Fatih Akin\u2019s \u2018Ghost Song\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tShe was here in the Bosnian capital at its 2nd installment in 1996, only a year after the siege had ended, with Lars von Trier\u2019s <em>Breaking the Waves<\/em>. Led by Watson and Swedish superstar Stellan Skarsgard, playing a married couple in 1970s Scotland, the film would go on to earn the British star her first Oscar nomination.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tTen years later, in 2006, Watson returned to the festival with her six-month-old daughter. Now 20, that same child has joined Watson in Sarajevo this year, supporting her mother \u2014\u00a0president of the feature film competition jury and Honorary Heart recipient \u2014 through what she describes as \u201ca surreal\u201d experience.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cAlso,\u201d Watson continues to <em>The Hollywood Reporter <\/em>about the retrospective screening at her honorary award ceremony, \u201c<em>Breaking the Waves <\/em>was surreal. Having my kids there to watch it, and seeing [co-star] Katrin [Cartlidge, who died in 2002] for the first time in 20 years up on the screen\u2026\u201d she takes a breath. Upon Cartlidge\u2019s death, Sarajevo set up a filmmaking bursary in her name, and Watson dedicated her Honorary Heart to the late actress while picking up the award this week. \u201cThen Stellan sent an amazing message, so I was all shook up,\u201d she smiles. \u201cLet\u2019s put it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe two-time Oscar nominee, best known for her roles in <em>Hilary and Jackie<\/em> (1998), <em>Punch-Drunk Love <\/em>(2002) and more recently, <em>Hamnet <\/em>(2025), says it feels right to bring her now-grown-up daughter here. \u201cThis festival is a really great place to bring young people because [of] its ethic. The culture here, it\u2019s [about] resistance. It\u2019s [about] survival. It\u2019s really important for peace and prosperity, rather than a whole load of cynical sales agents,\u201d she jokes about rival film festivals. \u201cThere\u2019s a very, very pure feeling here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSarajevo is just as in love with Watson as she is with it. \u201c<em>Breaking the Waves<\/em>\u00a0was the film that won the second Sarajevo Film Festival before we had the regional focus. She won our hearts back then with that film. And then she kept coming back,\u201d festival director Jovan Marjanovi\u0107 told <em>THR<\/em>about recognizing the star. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhat is it that\u2019s pulled her back each time? \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful place to come,\u201d Watson begins, \u201cbut it\u2019s the sense that the festival is a very central part of the revival and the healing of this region. Just watching the films that have been selected from the region, they are really trying to examine [and] look deeply into who they are and what they are. It\u2019s really been interesting actually, and also having jury members from the region \u2014\u00a0everybody has a very different perspective on things, the historical context.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5579\">Oscars: Czech Republic Picks Doc \u2018If Pigeons Turned to Gold\u2019 as Best Int\u2019l Feature Submission<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tIt is only the second time she\u2019s headed up a film festival jury \u2014\u00a0she last did so \u201cdecades\u201d ago at France\u2019s Dinard British &amp; Irish Film Festival \u2014\u00a0but it\u2019s a muscle Watson is glad to stretch. \u201cIt\u2019s been really lovely, actually. They\u2019re an amazing bunch of people,\u201d she adds about her fellow jury members Matthijs Wouter Knol, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Igor Bezinovi\u0107\u00a0and actress Sara Klimoska. They have a slew of beautifully crafted films to deliberate on, including Sandra Wollner\u2019s <em>Everytime<\/em>, Florin Serban\u2019s Locarno award winner <em>You Don\u2019t Belong Here<\/em>, and Dina Duma\u2019s <em>Skateboarding Is Not for Girls<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat focus on spotlighting regional cinema in the Balkans is also a big motivation for Watson. \u201cPeople in this region will go see films and talk about them. They\u2019ll get talked about in the press. There\u2019ll be real points of interest, and rightly so,\u201d she says about the sense of community here, a group united by cinema. \u201cBut they\u2019re not films that are aiming for world domination in the way that you\u2019ve got to be a hit in one of those big festivals and then have a massive, world-conquering campaign to register a breath, as it were.\u201d (Reminder: Watson is likely still processing last year\u2019s chaotic \u2014\u00a0and successful \u2014\u00a0<em>Hamnet <\/em>awards run.) \u201cIt\u2019s just a very different reach. It\u2019s for the people who live here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSarajevo Film Festival, she adds, has become something of a tourist attraction too. It\u2019s done wonders for the local economy, and entirely serves the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the surrounding regions. \u201cIt\u2019s a big deal,\u201d she says. Has this year\u2019s jury president and Honorary Heart recipient noticed the evolution of a festival born out of war? \u201cWhen we were here, they were not long out of the war,\u201d she answers.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cThe walls were full of bullet holes and shell markings. It was very recent. And a lot of the volunteers, the women who were organizing us and driving cars [in 2006], they had all been children during the siege,\u201d she continues. \u201cThey were incredibly young women, but clearly the impact on their health and their lives had been monumental.\u201d Watson is keen to keep championing that legacy of defiance in Sarajevo.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe 2026 Sarajevo Film Festival runs Aug. 14-21. Check out <em>THR<\/em>\u2018s conversation with fellow Honorary Heart recipient Asghar Farhadi, or the best lines from Woody Harrelson\u2019s Sarajevo masterclass.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5577\">Sandra Wollner and \u2018Everytime\u2019 Hit Sarajevo on the Festival Circuit: \u201cYou Can Feel the History Here\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year&#039;s jury president and Honorary Heart recipient, Emily Watson, opens up about her decades-long devotion to Sarajevo Film Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1424,2,1425],"class_list":["post-5583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-emily-watson","tag-international","tag-sarajevo-film-festival"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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