Stefan Dordevic’s Wind, Talk To Me won the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature film at the 2025 Sarajevo Film Festival, on an evening when several
Stefan Dordevic’s Wind, Talk To Me won the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature film at the 2025 Sarajevo Film Festival, on an evening when several winners expressed solidarity with the student protestors in Serbia.
Serbian director Dordevic’s film – a Serbia-Slovenia-Croatia co-production – is inspired by the director’s real-life experience, and follows a man whose first homecoming since his mother died coincides with his grandmother’s birthday, and his attempts to rescue a stray dog.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Dragana Jovovic, Ognjen Glavonic and Stefan Ivancic produce for Serbia’s Non-Aligned Films.
Dordevic dedicated the award to his mother, “but also all the mothers who are staying up all night in Serbia worrying about their kids on the streets being beaten brutally and arrested.”
Anti-government protests began in Serbia in November last year after a railway station collapse killed 16 people. The protests have been led by student groups including film students from Belgrade’s Faculty of Dramatic Arts, and have turned violent in recent weeks.
In awarding the €16,000 prize, the feature film competition jury praised Dordevic for taking “a formally bold and inquisitive approach to his very personal subject, working with his collaborators to combine elements of fiction and documentary into a film of beguiling melancholy and delicate beauty.”
It was a banner day for Serbian independent film, with Serbian-Romanian director Ivana Mladenovic winning the €10,000 best director prize for Sorella Di Clausura. “The punk spirit is never far away in this skilfully directed film, which flows like a Dostoevskean river, stacking failure on failure, to finally arrive at a romantic comedy, but without the romance,” noted the jury.
Adem Tutic won the €1,000 best student film award for Serbian title Tarik. Tutic brought his passport on stage to wave during his acceptance speech, in which he dedicated the award to “my beloved people in Serbia, fighting for their rights and freedom.”
Fantasy
The best actress award went to the four-person lead ensemble of Fantasy – Sarah al Saleh, Mia Skrbinac, Mina Milovanovic and Alina Juhart, the latter of whom is a transgender woman. Andrija Kuzmanovic won best actor for Yugo Florida, another Serbian title.
Austrian film Our Time Will Come, directed by Ivette Locker, won the best documentary prize; with a special mention to Kristina Nikolova’s In Hell With Ivo, about flamboyant musician and performer Ivo Dimchev.
“Sarajevo captures all a festival should have – soul, fun, great movies and connecting with industry of all levels easily,” said Nikolova, who highlighted Romani documentary I Saw A Suno and the post-screening dance party with live brass band as a festival highlight.
Dmytro Hreshko, Ukrainian director of documentary competition title Divia about the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, said, “As a Ukrainian filmmaker, I can’t help but feel a strong connection between our current experience and the historical trauma that Bosnia and Herzegovina has lived through. This region knows what war does — not only to cities and people, but to landscapes, memory, and the collective psyche.”
Hreshko, who is currently serving in the Ukrainian armed forces with the Cultural Forces initiative, added, “I left Sarajevo with clarity and confidence in the film we made. The feedback, audience reactions, sense of connection, all reminded me why we tell these stories.”
Sarajevo Film Festival 2025 winners
Competition programme – feature film
Best feature film – Wind, Talk To Me (Ser-Slovenia-Cro) dir. Stefan Dordevic
Best director – Ivana Mladenovic, Sorella Di Clausura
Best actress – Sarah al Saleh, Alina Juhart, Mia Skrbinac, Mina Milovanovic, Fantasy
Best actor – Andrija Kuzmanovic, Yugo Florida
Competition programme – documentary film
Best documentary film – Our Time Will Come (Aus) dir. Ivette Locker
Best miniature documentary film – The Man’s Land (Geo-Hun) dir. Mariam Bakacho Katchvani
Special jury award – In Hell With Ivo (Bul-US) dir. Kristina Nikolova
Special mention – I Believe The Portrait Saved Me (Kos-Neth) dir. Alban Muja
Competition programme – miniature film
Best miniature film – Winter In March (Arm-Est-Fr-Bel) dir. Natalia Mirzoyan
Special mention – Eraserhead In A Knitted Shopping Bag (Bul) dir. Lili Koss
Competition programme – student film
Best student film – Tarik (Ser) dir. Adem Tutic
Special award for promoting gender equality – God Will Not Help (Cro-It-Rom-Gr-Fr) dir. Hana Jusic
Special youth perspectives award – DJ Ahmet (N Mac-Czech-Ser-Cro) dir. Georgi M. Unkovski
Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award – Willem Dafoe, Stellan Skarsgard, Paolo Sorrentino, Ray Winstone
COMMENTS