The Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF), a leading film festival in Southeast Europe, launched a network of festivals operating on the territory of common language of the former Yugoslavia in 2020 (supported by CE MEDIA programme). Alongside SFF, the network initially involved prominent festivals from Croatia (Zagreb Film Festival – ZFF), Montenegro (Montenegro / Herceg Novi Film Festival – MFF) and Serbia (Auteur Film Festival – AFF). Ass the Network’s strategic plan foresaw geographical extension to other territories of Former Yugoslavia, a fifth partner from Slovenia was introduced in 2022 (Ljubljana International Film Festival – LIFF), and a sixth, the Manaki Brothers Festival in Bitola, in 2023. Although differing in scope and programming, the festivals all share a mission to promote and circulate European audio-visual content and talent.

The governing principles that have emerged over the last two years: a high level of solidarity towards filmmakers; the launching of partnering activities among festivals that enable circulation of content and promotion of European talent; boosting the financial exploitation of selected titles to secure fair monetisation; ensuring more job opportunities for the professionals involved in the festival sector and introducing sustainable practices into our daily operations.

Not only in our region, but also across Europe, smaller-scale film festivals have become the leading alternative method of financial exploitation for many European films. Operating in such a milieu requires festivals to step in and take the role of independent distributors, the only means of achieving economy of scale is to collaborate and establish partnerships across the region.

The Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region is a strategic partnership aimed at strengthening the circulation and promotion of independent European films and talented filmmakers in a common language region with limited access to high-quality film content. The project seeks to encourage audience retention, to cultivate new audiences and to raise the overall organisational and operational capacities of its partners by introducing the latest technological advances.

Several joint projects to be carried out by the Network in 2024 include a selection of four European films that will screen at all six festivals, where local cinema-goers will vote for the Audience Award. The winning film will be announced at the end of the year, after the festival circuit has completed and the votes from all festivals have been counted, receiving financial support for the distribution of the film in the region.