Eight feature-length projects have been selected for CineLink Work in Progress 2026 Awards, held as part of the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival. Turkish filmmaker Emin Fırat Övür’s It is among the projects featured in this year’s lineup.

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The CineLink Work in Progress 2026 Awards lineup brings together feature-length films in post-production from Southeast Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

The selected projects will be presented to leading international industry professionals, including funders, sales agents, distributors, broadcasters and festival programmers. The programme aims to support the films’ completion while strengthening their international distribution and festival prospects.

€30,000 in Cash and €60,000 in Post-Production Support

The selected projects will be considered for three industry awards with a combined value of €90,000:

• HBO Award: €30,000 in cash
• Avanpost Media Award: €30,000 in post-production services
• Post Republic Award: €30,000 in post-production services

This year’s selection brings together debut features by emerging directors and new works by established filmmakers with distinctive visual and narrative approaches.

Family lies at the heart of many of the selected projects. Through stories dealing with the legacy of the past, crime, class struggle, patriarchal structures and fragile human relationships, the films explore the family as both a refuge and a battleground.

Emin Fırat Övür’s It Selected for the Programme

Turkish filmmaker Emin Fırat Övür’s It is among the fiction projects selected for CineLink Work in Progress 2026 Awards.

Produced by Emin Fırat Övür and Atilla Salih Yücer, the project is being developed by Mercury Production and Alaz Film.

It follows a dog born in captivity, separated from her family, sold into a life of privilege and later abandoned on the streets of Istanbul. As she comes of age, she must learn to survive in a world shaped by both care and cruelty.

The project will be considered for one of the programme’s three industry awards.

Jasmila Žbanić to Present a Special Session

Alongside the official selection, CineLink Work in Progress 2026 Awards will host a special session featuring acclaimed Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić.

Žbanić will present exclusive excerpts from her new feature, Quo Vadis, Aida? – The Missing Part. She will also discuss the creative and practical challenges involved in the film’s development and post-production.

The session will offer participants a behind-the-scenes look at one of the region’s most anticipated projects currently in production.

CineLink Work in Progress 2026 Awards Lineup

The White Week

• Category: Fiction
• Director: Bojan Vuletić
• Countries: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro

Following the tragic death of his brother, an eleven-year-old boy begins using the loss in his conflict with his father and those around him. Driven by fear, he manipulates the investigation and exposes the workings of a hypocritical and corrupt society.

Marienhof

• Category: Documentary
• Director: Nina Kusturica
• Country: Austria

Filmmaker Nina Kusturica travels from Vienna with her mother to the long-vacant Sarajevo apartment where she grew up. The personal and poetic documentary explores identity, belonging, new beginnings and the meaning of home.

Pay the Bill

• Category: Fiction
• Director: Assel Aushakimova
• Countries: Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

After receiving an unexpected late-night call from a police officer, a 65-year-old Kazakh woman spends a difficult night and day searching for her daughter, entering a world marked by widespread indifference.

About the End of the World

• Category: Documentary
• Director: Jakob Krese
• Countries: Slovenia, Germany, Italy and Croatia

A young father desperately trying to help his newborn daughter survive discovers the power of her name—a symbol of resistance passed down through generations.

The First Week of August

• Category: Fiction
• Director: Filip Mojzeš
• Countries: Croatia and Poland

During a Mediterranean holiday, a mother’s sudden physical outburst towards her ten-year-old son exposes long-suppressed tensions within the family. The picturesque setting becomes a battleground between the mother and her emotionally wounded child.

It

• Category: Fiction
• Director: Emin Fırat Övür
• Country: Türkiye

Born in captivity, separated from her family, sold into privilege and later abandoned on the streets of Istanbul, a dog comes of age while learning to survive in a world shaped by care and cruelty.

Bubo Bubo

• Category: Fiction
• Director: György Mór Kárpáti
• Country: Hungary

A young couple looking for a place to have a home birth moves into a holiday house. When they discover an owl nesting inside, the bird’s presence brings their insecurities to the surface.

Lullaby

• Category: Fiction
• Director: Keti Machavariani
• Countries: Greece and Georgia

When the elderly man in her care suddenly dies, a Georgian translator living in Athens risks losing the only income supporting her son. She must find a way through the crisis without betraying her principles.

The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from 14 to 21 August 2026.