SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL AND WARM LAUNCH NEW FILM EVENT

Sarajevo Film Festival and WARM Foundation are launching a new international film festival in Sarajevo, with its first edition taking place from 24 to 28 November 2026.

The new festival grows out of a long-standing collaboration between the two organisations, and follows last year’s WARM Movies, a three-day programme at Kino Meeting Point that brought together conflict-related films selected through the WARM network, their filmmakers and Sarajevo audiences. The response to the screenings and conversations encouraged WARM and Sarajevo Film Festival to develop the idea into a larger annual event.

While documentary cinema will be at the heart of the festival, the programme will not be limited to documentaries. It will also include fiction, short, archival and hybrid films, with a particular interest in war and conflict, human rights, investigative journalism, reconciliation and memory, as well as films dealing with music, sport, fashion and contemporary culture.

An important part of the programme will be the WARM Selection, presenting films selected through the WARM Foundation and its international network of journalists, filmmakers, artists and others working in and around conflicts. Screenings will be accompanied by conversations with filmmakers and people directly connected to the subjects and contexts of the films.

Special attention will be given to organisations and filmmakers working in conflict areas, paying tribute to Sarajevo’s own experience of wartime cinema and to the filmmakers, initiatives and institutions that emerged from it and continue its legacy.

The festival will take place annually around 25 November, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Statehood Day, creating an end-of-year gathering in Sarajevo around films, people and conversations that matter.

The first edition will take place 24–28 November 2026 in Sarajevo.