The 21th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, which is supported by the Council of Europe, ended today with the award ceremony.

The “Heart of Sarajevo for the Best Feature Film” award, which is sponsored by the Council of Europe, went to the film “Mustang”, directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven from Turkey.

Five young actresses who act in the film - Güneş Şensoy, Doga Doğuşlu, Tuğba Sunguroğlu, Elit İşcan and Ilayda Akdoğan – were jointly awarded the “Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress”.                     

The Sarajevo Film Festival, which was organised for the first time in 1995 at the height of the siege of the Bosnian capital, seeks to support and further cinema and authors from Eastern and Southern Europe in particular.

Many of the contending productions are co-financed by the Council of Europe's Eurimages support fund for European cinema. The issues addressed in the films often tie in with the values upheld by the Organisation.

The Council of Europe organised several side events during the festival. On 14 August, it held a high-level conference on Women in today's European film industry under the auspices of the Chairmanship of Bosnia and Herzegovina of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

On 20 and 21 August the Organisation organised an event called The Living Library, an innovative method to promote dialogue, reduce prejudices and encourage understanding. The Living Library works like a normal library – readers come and borrow a ‘book’ for a limited period of time. There is only one difference: the Books in the Living Library are human beings, mostly people representing groups frequently confronted with prejudices and discrimination, and the Books and readers engage in a personal dialogue.

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