News
Talents Sarajevo Call for Entries 2026
Up-and-coming film creatives are invited to apply for the 20th edition of Talents Sarajevo.
The Sarajevo Film Festival invites emerging film professionals and film critics from Southeast Europe and the Southern Caucasus to submit entries for the twentieth edition of Talents Sarajevo, titled Reality, Rewritten.
Talents Sarajevo will take place during the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, with parts of the programme also unfolding online ahead of the festival.
Directors, producers, actors, scriptwriters, cinematographers, editors, and film critics from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo*, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Türkiye, and Ukraine are encouraged to apply.
REALITY, REWRITTEN
Authorship, Collaboration, and Transformation in the Filmmaking Process
Most significant transformations in filmmaking take place within the process itself, as reality, memory, or existing material passes through different creative roles and crafts. In this context, the essence of a story is understood as the perspective it takes on its subject and the meaning it seeks to convey. Filmmaking involves an ongoing negotiation between preserving this core and allowing the material to change through collaboration. Decisions about framing, performance, sound, rhythm, and structure do not merely convey meaning; they shape it, as material moves from one stage of the process to another.
Reality, Rewritten focuses on how this negotiation unfolds in practice. Whether the starting point is lived experience, observation, memory, documentary material, or written text, filmmakers work with material that is open to interpretation. Reading, recalling, or observing becomes a point of departure rather than a fixed blueprint, as collaborators bring different perspectives and responsibilities into the process. Meaning takes form through concrete choices made on set and in the editing room, where emphasis, interpretation, and omission shape how a story is understood.
By foregrounding collaboration as a defining condition of filmmaking, Reality, Rewritten invites participants to reflect on real working situations in which authorship is shared and coherence must be actively sustained. The theme considers how filmmakers remain responsible toward the original material while allowing it to change through collective work, negotiation, and trust, processes that are part of everyday creative practice.
Through masterclasses, discussions, and screenings, participants engage with internationally renowned professionals and peers from the region, examining both artistic processes and industry realities. Particular attention is given to collaboration across disciplines and to the practical conditions under which films are developed, produced, and shaped. In response to the growing number of specialized script development programs and the increasing demand for drama series, Script Station introduced a simulation of a Writers’ Room format in 2025 and, building on this experience, will continue developing this approach in 2026.
Talents Sarajevo, founded in collaboration with Berlin International Film Festival and Berlinale Talents, has become the foremost regional hub for meeting and training aspiring film professionals. Its mission remains to provide long-term, unconditional support to new voices in Southeast European cinema.
The closing date for applications is March 10th.
More information and the application form are available HERE.
The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from 14 to 21 August 2026.
Talents Sarajevo is supported by Creative Europe MEDIA programme.
CONTACT
Talents Administration
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on Kosovo’s declaration of independence.