Sarajevo Film Academy

With deep sadness, we bid farewell to one of the most important film auteurs of our time.

Béla Tarr was a rare and uncompromising artistic force – a filmmaker whose work helped shape contemporary cinema and profoundly influenced generations of young artists across the world. His films continue to stand as uncompromising and startling reflections on time, humanity, and moral responsibility, offering a cinematic language that remains as demanding as it is timeless.

Our bond with Béla remains deeply entrenched in the very identity of the Sarajevo Film Academy. As the creative founder of film.factory, he was instrumental in shaping an innovative doctoral-level program built around practice, experimentation, and artistic freedom. Conceived as an open and progressive educational model, film.factory placed strong emphasis on high practical output, intensive workshops, and the development of each student’s individual artistic direction. As a mentor, he inspired and encouraged young filmmakers from around the world to trust their own voice, to resist shortcuts, and to approach cinema with seriousness and ethical commitment.

A great artist has left us.
But his presence endures – in his films, in the work of generations of film.factory authors who continue to push forward with their own uncompromising vision and stories to be told - and in all of us, who had the privilege of knowing him as a colleague and a friend.

Photos: film.factory archive
Béla Tarr with film.factory students on film set
Gael Garcia Berane, workshop, Spring semester 2015
Béla Tarr in classroom
Tilda Swinton, workshop, Spring semester 2013
Gus Van Sant, workshop, Spring semester 2015
Juliette Binoche, workshop, Spring semester 2015
Béla Tarr in classroom

SCREENING OF THE OMNIBUS “WHAT DOES BIH MEAN TO YOU?” AND PANEL WITH THE FILM AUTHORS

University Sarajevo School of Science and Technology (SSST) organised a screening followed by a panel discussion with four young female filmmakers, whose short films formed the omnibus. The panel was moderated by Emina Ganić, the producer of omnibus and Head of the Sarajevo Film Academy (SFA) at University SSST.

A young woman caught between love and an opportunity to study abroad; one lost wallet and a chance encounter that opens the possibility of reconciling the past and the present; two friends facing diverging choices and futures; and a call that brings two strangers together: make up the four stories set against the Sarajevo skyline and told by women and of women, living in BiH today.

We would like to congratulate the filmmakers: Alma Cocaj, Rea Memić, Sara Ristić & Emina Šehić and Mirela Salihović and thank them for their creativity and efforts to present, both through their films and the panel discussion, their unique insight into living, working, loving and striving to carve out their future in BiH.

A huge thank you to Fondacija Konrad Adenauer Sarajevo and its director and the producer of omnibus Sven Petke for launching this incredible project, for their partnership and active involvement in every part of this remarkable journey.

Next stop - FilmFestival Cottbus 😎

As we say goodbye to this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival, we are proud to congratulate the wonderful achievement of the first generation of graduates of the film.factory program at the Sarajevo Film Academy! Their omnibus film “Letters from the Ends of the World” had its world premiere as one of the two opening films of the Sarajevo Film Festival!

photo by: SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL

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