At the first press conference of the year held today in Dječija kuća in Novo Sarajevo, Telemach OFF presented the Wolf Competition 14plus program and the main competition program of the feature film OFF Generation Features.
At the very beginning of the conference, Mirza Čustović, the Program Producer of the Festival, introduced the OFF Youth Experience (OFF YE) program, which is being held this year for the first time as a project of the EDU Cats network. OFF YE will host 50 young people from 5 countries who will be part of the youth jury and attend a series of programs during the 8 days of the Festival.
This year’s Telemach Youth Film Festival Sarajevo has a new location, Dječija kuća, which, in addition to the Raiffeisen Open Air open-air cinema, will show feature films from the program intended for participants of the OFF YE program.
For us, OFF Youth Experience represents the deepening of the Festival’s mission: the education and promotion of both young filmmakers and professionals, as well as all young people interested in the seventh art. It is worth emphasizing that the OFF Youth Experience program will represent the voice of a generation, not only of young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina but also from other countries in the region. We hope its first edition will be just the prelude to another beautiful OFF story.
Our goal is to provide a platform that will allow young talents to express themselves, learn new skills, and connect with peers from across the region. We believe that OFF Youth Experience will become a place of encounter, inspiration, and creative development for all participants, creating lasting memories and new opportunities in the world of film.
Raiffeisen Bank’s marketing director, Nejad Džudža, stated that the company’s support for OFF is a logical sequence of events, given their efforts to be involved in the processes of cultural, film, and artistic development not only of the City but of the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. “We are delighted to be one of the main sponsors of the Festival this year, and we are especially delighted to be present at the biggest and most beautiful cinema of the Festival, on Vilsonovo šetalište.”
The Municipality of Novo Sarajevo has financially supported Telemach OFF for the third year in a row with an amount of 40,000.00 BAM, which also subsidizes tickets for all screenings, making the contents of the Raiffeisen Open Air cinema free this year. “We’re really excited to be a part of the OFF story for the third year. We have invested significant funds in the development of the Festival, but also directly in the development of the museum district and culture and film in the territory of our Municipality. We’ve brought Vilsonovo šetalište to life, and I’m glad we’re each other’s partners in that.”
As part of today’s press conference, Festival Director and Program Director Kenan Musić presented the OFF Generation Features selection, stating that “Telemach OFF’s biggest, best, and most diverse program ever is evidenced by the titles from this year’s selection.” Telemach OFF is a platform where dozens of young filmmakers from the region and Europe took their first professional steps. Many of them, after their first films and awards at our Festival, have appeared at eminent programs and festivals all over Europe, including Berlinale Talents, Sarajevo Talents, festivals in Clermont, San Sebastian, and Brussels Shorts. This testifies to how carefully and qualitatively this festival nurtures and promotes new authors.
This year’s winner of the Ring Festival for the best male role in a series is Lazar Dragojević, a young actor who became famous for his role in Jasmila Žbanić’s series “I Know How You Breathe”. Lazar will be given the ring at the opening ceremony. In previous years, this award has gone to popular young actors from the Netflix and HBO series, such as Damian Hardung, Andre Lamoglia, and Mattia Carrano.
OFF Generation Features program this year brings 9 films and they are:
An Endless Sunday/Una sterminata domenica
Trajanje: 110′
Drzava: Italy, Germany, Republic of Ireland
Reziser: Alain Parroni
Forever-Forever/Nazavzhdy-Nazavzhdy
Trajanje: 107′
Drzava: Netherlands, Ukraine
Reziser: Anna Buryachkova
Sunce Mamino/Sweet Sorrow
Trajanje: 95′
Drzava: Serbia, Croatia
Reziser: Kosta Đorđević
All To Play For/Rien à Perdre
Trajanje: 112′
Drzava: France, Belgium
Reziser: Delphine Deloget
Last Summer/L’été dernier
Trajanje: 104′
Drzava: France
Reziser: Saïd Ben Saïd
Suspicious Minds
Trajanje: 87′
Drzava: Italy, France
Reziser: Emiliano Corapi
Last Swim
Trajanje: 100′
Drzava: United Kingdom
Reziser: Sasha Nathwani
Dormitory/Yurt
Trajanje: 118′
Drzava: Turkey, Germany, France
Reziser: Nehir Tuna
Not A Word
Trajanje: 87′
Drzava: Germany, France
Reziser: Hanna Slak
The 16th Telemach Youth Film Festival Sarajevo will be held from July 19-26, 2024. The complete program will be presented at the beginning of July, when the names of this year’s acting stars and sensations coming to the Festival will be revealed.
