The Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the winners of its 2025 CineLink Industry Days Awards, including the Places Half Empty, a portrait of a queer relationship in Hungary under far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which received the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award.
Among other winners is Gorilla, recipient of the TV Drama Vision Pitch Award, which is set in 1960s Paris, where a French movie star and his Yugoslav bodyguard’s brotherhood is threatened by a Hollywood murder.
Projects in different formats and stages of development from Southeast Europe and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region were presented in its 23rd edition. And now, prizes have been handed out in the CineLink Co-Production Market, CineLink Work in Progress, and CineLink Drama sections.
The 31st edition of the Sarajevo festival wraps up today, Friday.
Below is a look at the CineLink winners.
CINELINK CO-PRODUCTION MARKET AWARDS
Eurimages Co-Production Development AwardPlaces Half Empty Synopsis: “A controversial and intimate portrait of a queer relationship in the context of Orbán’s Hungary.”Director: Dorka Vermes Writer: Sára Törley-Havas Producers: Evelyn Balogh, Botond Lelkes Production Company: Non Lieu Kft. Country: HungaryAward in the amount of €20,000
Film Center Montenegro Cinelink AwardStone Over Stone Synopsis: “Shams and her husband arrive from their village and settle into an unfinished construction site where he works to repay gambling debts. He is lured back into his addiction, so Shams, who is pregnant, is left to drift among the outcasts living on the margins, until the collapse around her forces an unthinkable decision about the life she carries inside her.”Director: Hilal Baydarov Writers: Hilal Baydarov, Georg Tiller Producers: Maéva Ranaïvojaona, Georg Tiller, Hilal Baydarov Production Company: Subobscura Films Co-production Company: Ucqar Film Countries: Austria, AzerbaijanAward in the amount of €10,000
Film Center Serbia Cinelink AwardPogana Synopsis: “On a faraway Dalmatian island in the 1920s, Pogana, a woman from the inlands, is sold to be the new wife of a widower sailor with five children. When the sailor is lost at sea, Pogana is left at the mercy of the cruel villagers and their customs.”Director: David Kapac Writers: Andrija Mardešić, David Kapac Producers: Rea Rajčić, Tina Tišljar Production Company: Eclectica Co-Production Companies: VertigoCountries: Croatia, SloveniaAward in the amount of €10,000
Artekino International PrizeTwo Little NightmaresSynopsis: “Thirty years after his father’s suicide wiped a year from his memory, Matija returns home. As he pieces together the past, he unearths a long-buried betrayal, a haunting secret, and the terrified boy he once was.”Director: Nebojša SlijepčevićWriters: Nebojša Slijepčević, Nađa PetrovićProducers: Danijel Pek, Katarina PrpićProduction Company: AntitalentCo-Production Companies: Sense Production, Studio Virc, Contrast Films, Les Films NorfolkCo-Producers: Milan Stojanović, Boštjan Virc, Katya Trichkova, Noelle LevenezCountries: Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, FranceAward in the amount of €6,000
CINELINK CO-PRODUCTION MARKET & CINELINK DRAMA
Female Voices Cinelink AwardRain Country Synopsis: “In early 2000s Istanbul, high school senior Gül’s secret is exposed after her classmate’s suicide, turning her life upside down. Gül embarks on a journey to find her inner strength for independence and growth.”Director: Zeynep Köprülü Writers: Zeynep Köprülü, Haziran Düzkan Producers: Utku Zeka, Zeynep Köprülü, Cansu Menlikli Production Company: Periferi Film Country: TürkiyeAward in the amount of €20,000
CINELINK DRAMA
Council of Europe Series Co-Production Development AwardRed Water Synopsis: “In 1989, at the Croatian seaside, a family is shattered when their daughter disappears. Her dark secrets disintegrate the community over two decades until the return of the former investigator unveils the truth.”Creator: Ljubica Luković Writers: Ljubica Luković, Jurica Pavičić Director: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović Producer: Danijel Pek Production Company: Antitalent Country: CroatiaAward in the amount of €50,000
Croatian Audiovisual Center Drama AwardWonderful Synopsis: “Dissatisfied with the way her life has turned out, a woman starts waking up on the mornings when she made some of the key decisions that shaped it. She takes alternate paths towards different lives that could have been.”Creators and Writers: Katarina Mitrović, Isidora Veselinović, Vladimir Tagić Directors: Vladimir Tagić, Isidora Veselinović Producer: Marija Stojanović Production Company: Sense Production Country: SerbiaAward in the amount of €15,000
TV Drama Vision Pitch AwardGorilla Synopsis: “In the decadent world of 1960s Paris, a French movie star and his Yugoslav bodyguard’s powerful brotherhood shatters when a Hollywood murder threatens to destroy them both.”Creator: Gabor Krigler Writers: Eszter Angyalosy, Cyril Tysz Director: Christian Gudegast Producer: Ivana Miković Production Company: Firefly Productions Country: Serbia
CINELINK WORK IN PROGRESS AWARDS
HBO AwardWho Are WeSynopsis: “After a pupil’s suicide, a school trip exposes the haunting path to tragedy. As the journey unfolds, the bullies are the same, the victims are new, and the shadow of the dead pupil looms over them all.”Director: Miroslav TerzićProducer: Snežana van HouwelingenProduction Company: This and That ProductionsCo-Production Companies: Nightswim, Invictus, PTD, KinoramaCountries: Serbia, Italy, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, CroatiaAward in the amount of €30,000
Turkish National Radio Television AwardYesterday the Eye Didn’t SleepSynopsis: “In a valley veiled by fog and tribal codes, two sisters walk into the night not as daughters, but as offerings — where blood, memory, and silence attempt to keep the fire from spreading.”Director: Rakan MayasiProducer: Jennifer Ritter, Rakan MayasiProduction Company: AtataCountries: Belgium, Palestine, LebanonAward in the amount of €10,000
Post Republic AwardWhere To?Synopsis: “The different taxi rides across the city of Berlin between Hassan, a middle-aged Palestinian Uber driver, and young Israeli who gets lost in the city, tell a tragic-comic story about moving forward.”Director: Assaf MachnesProducers: Tomer Mecklberg, Haim Mecklberg, Oren Rogovin, Mohamad BabiProduction Company: 2 Team ProductionsCo-Production Companies: Lev Cinema, Rogovin Brothers, Iconoclast GermanyCountry: Israel, GermanyAward in the amount of €30,000 in kind
Avanpost Media Award17Synopsis: “After having a threesome with her classmates, Sara, 17, gets pregnant and tries to hide it from everyone, which becomes especially difficult during the graduation excursion.”Director: Kosara MitićProducer: Tomi SalkovskiProduction Company: Black Cat ProductionCoproduction companies: Art&Popcorn, DecemberCountries: North Macedonia, Serbia, SloveniaAward in the amount of €30,000 in kind
CINELINK WORK IN PROGRESS AND DOCU ROUGH CUT BOUTIQUE AWARDS
Think-Film Impact Production AwardLost and Found: Romania’s Hidden Adoption MarketSynopsis: “When a young Canadian woman who was sold as an infant in post-Ceaușescu Romania returns to reclaim her identity, she uncovers the machinery that trafficked the sister she never knew, one of 30,000 children ‘exported’ for adoption.”Director: Laurentiu GarofeanuProducer: Laurentiu GarofeanuEditor: Iulian GhervasProduction company: Mekanism Media (RO)Country: RomaniaLength: 90 minAward in the amount of €20,000 in kind
Eave + AwardMarija Stojanović
