CineLink, the industry program of Sarajevo Film Festival, has completed the lineups for the Co-Production Market and CineLink Drama sections. It has also announced a new €10,000 ($11,400) award and a partnership with Cannes’ Critics’ Week.
The final selections comprise 16 feature film projects and eight drama series projects, with women directing or co-directing nine of the Co-Production Market titles.
Eleven projects were announced in May, and the official selection is now completed by the additional titles.
Completing the official selection are new projects by two acclaimed Bulgarian filmmakers, both returning to CineLink. Nadejda Koseva presents “Fleur de Mar,” following her previous feature “The Trap,” which was part of CineLink Work in Progress in 2022. Koseva is also known for her short films screened at the Berlinale and Sundance.
Ralitza Petrova returns with “Peace,” her third feature. Her debut, “Godless,” was developed through the CineLink Co-Production Market in 2015 and went on to win the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival, while her second film, “Lust,” was developed at CineLink in 2021 and presented at CineLink Work in Progress in 2024, before premiering in the Berlinale Forum earlier this year.
The lineup also includes two guest projects presented through CineLink’s long-standing collaboration with the Doha Film Institute. “The Peacock Queen,” a film for young audiences, is directed by Qatari directing and animation duo Aisha Al-Jaidah and Kholood Al-Ali. “Madness and Honey Days” is the new project by Iraqi writer and director Ahmed Yassin Al-Darraji, whose debut feature, “Hanging Gardens” (2022), premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was selected as Iraq’s submission for the Academy Awards.
CineLink+ will present a new project by Serbian filmmaker Goran Marković. His films “National Class,” “Variola Vera” and “Special Education” remain defining works of Yugoslav cinema.
The CineLink Drama selection expands to eight projects with “Chasing the Clouds” by Karla Lulić and Jelena Mađarić. The Croatian-Finnish co-production joins the lineup as a guest project presented in collaboration with the TV Beats Forum Co-Financing Market in Tallinn.
CineLink Industry Days has also announced a new €10,000 cash award presented by the Kosovo Cinematography Center. The award will support one project selected for the CineLink Co-Production Market and will be presented at the CineLink Awards Ceremony on Aug. 20.
“This final lineup brings together seven debut features and new projects by filmmakers whose work we have followed through CineLink over many years. Nine of the 16 projects are directed or co-directed by women, reflecting the strength and range of women filmmakers working across the territories represented in the selection. We are also very pleased to welcome the new award from the Kosovo Cinematography Center. At a time when development financing is increasingly difficult to secure, this kind of direct support can give a project real momentum,” said Asja Krsmanović, head of CineLink.
CINELINK CO-PRODUCTION MARKET
THE PEACOCK QUEEN
Directors: Kholoud AlAli, Aisha Al-Jaidah
Writers: Kholoud AlAli, Aisha Al-Jaidah
Producer: Ben Robinson
Production company: Blue Penguin Animation/DFI
Country: Qatar
Brother and sister, Abdulla (8) and Hessa (13), are transported to a mythical world – embarking on a deadly quest to find three magic pearls – allowing them to return home before being stranded forever.
MADNESS AND HONEY DAYS
Director: Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji
Writers: Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji
Producer: Mayhtam Jbara
Production company: Purattu Films
Countries: Iraq, Canada, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
After accidentally cursing President Saddam Hussein on stage, theater actor Salem convinces a military court of his insanity to escape a death sentence. Exiled to a psychiatric hospital in Baghdad during the final months before Saddam’s fall, Salem must navigate his sanity, knowing that the execution awaits if the doctor declares him mentally fit.
FLEUR DE SEL
Director: Nadejda Koseva
Writers: Simeon Ventsislavov, Nadejda Koseva
Producer: Stefan Kitanov
Production company: RFF International
Country: Bulgaria
After the huge international success of her last film, Nina (in her 30s) suffers a serious accident and is forced to undergo rehabilitation with Black Sea mud, where she meets Irini (in her 50s). She is a gatherer of the “Fleur de sel” and a self-taught healer with a questionable gift. She helps Nina realize that the wounds of her body are far lighter than those of her soul.
PEACE
Director/Writer: Ralitza Petrova
Producer: Katya Trichkova
Production companies: Contrast Films, Aporia Filmworks
Co-production company: Mater Pictures
Countries: Bulgaria, Denmark
When the privileged wife of a weapons testing range owner barely survives an accidental explosion and emerges from a coma profoundly changed, she begins to undermine her family’s security, while her husband sets out to undermine hers.
FRITZ AND DOBRILA
Director/Writer: Goran Marković
Producers: Čarna Vučinić, Stefan Ivančić, Ena Bajraktarević
Production company: Naked
Country: Serbia
Fritz, Dobrila and their son Mate live off Swiss disability pensions in a tiny apartment in Belgrade. Without ever stepping out into the outside world, they face the absurdities of Balkan socio-politics and the fractured realities shaped by their intrusive neighbors. Based on a book by Srđan Valjarević.
CINELINK DRAMA
CHASING THE CLOUDS
Director: Karla Lulić
Writers: Karla Lulić, Jelena Mađarić
Producers: Karla Lulić, Jelena Mađarić
Production company: Dobar Film
Co-production companies: Good Hand, Drugi Plan
Countries: Croatia, Finland
After a spin the bottle truth or dare game at a teenage party goes terribly wrong, a boy named Luka is dead. Over six episodes, we follow six teenagers, connecting the pieces of the puzzle of a mysterious tragedy.
PARTNERSHIP WITH CANNES’ CRITICS’ WEEK
At the center of the partnership with Cannes’ Critics’ Week is Next Step Studio, its international program for emerging filmmakers. Each edition takes place in a different country and brings together eight directors, four from the host country and four international participants, who work in pairs to co-write and co-direct four 15-minute short films.
Produced and financed in the host country, the films receive their world premieres in Critics’ Week in Cannes. The participating directors also present their first or second feature projects to international buyers, broadcasters, distributors and co-producers. The inaugural edition of Next Step Studio took place in Indonesia, with its four short films premiering in Cannes in May 2026.
Through the new Next Step Studio Participation Award, one emerging director from the CineLink selection will become one of the four international filmmakers participating in the following edition of the program. The award will be presented at the CineLink Awards Ceremony on Aug. 20.
The exchange will work in both directions. CineLink will welcome one Next Step Studio filmmaker to present their first or second feature project at the Co-Production Market, while the Sarajevo Film Festival will screen short films created through the program.
“Making a first feature can take years, and during that time filmmakers need opportunities to keep creating, test their ideas and build relationships with their peers. This is what makes the partnership so valuable to us. Next Step Studio gives one CineLink director a genuine opportunity to make a new film with an international collaborator and present it in Cannes. It strengthens the ecosystem around first-time filmmakers and supports CineLink’s wider commitment to bringing new voices into the international film industry,” said Maša Marković, head of industry at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
“For more than a decade, and especially since SEE Factory in Sarajevo in 2019, the Sarajevo Film Festival and its outstanding industry programs have felt like a second home to me. Returning every year has become both a pleasure and a source of inspiration, and CineLink is always where I discover some of the most exciting new voices from the region. This new partnership feels like a natural continuation of a long relationship. I am especially happy to begin this collaboration with CineLink through the 2027 Next Step Studio, which will take place in Armenia, and to continue building bridges between emerging filmmakers and the international industry together,” said Dominique Welinski, producer and curator of Next Step Studio.
“The launch of Next Step Studio in 2026 with Dominique Welinski was a significant milestone for Cannes’ Critics’ Week. Since 2013 and the creation of its Next Step workshop, the parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival dedicated to first and second feature films has continued its efforts to support young talents in international cinema. Initially reserved for filmmakers selected at Critics’ Week with their short films to help them on their path to feature films, the Next Step workshops are diversifying and gradually opening up to guest programs and partners. We are therefore delighted to welcome this new partnership with CineLink, which will allow us to expand our exchanges with a particularly creative and inspiring region of the world,” said Thomas Rosso, Critics Week’s program manager, Next Step workshops’ director.
CineLink Industry Days takes place from Aug. 15 to 20. The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival takes place from Aug. 14 to 21.
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