Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino, US star Dafoe honoured at Sarajevo Film Fest

By Daria Sito-Sucic

SARAJEVO (Reuters) -Oscar-winning Italian director Paolo Sorrentino will be honoured at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival, which kicks off on Friday, alongside star actors Willem Dafoe, Ray Winstone and Stellan Skarsgard.

Sorrentino – known for “Il Divo”, “The Hand of God” and “The Great Beauty”, which was recognised as best foreign language film at the 2014 Academy Awards – will get the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at the event which will show a retrospective of his films.

“Paolo Sorrentino managed to do what every filmmaker dreams of – he left a global impact through local, personal stories, festival director Jovan Marjanovic said in a statement.

U.S. actor Dafoe – who turned 70 last month and has starred in everything from “Poor Things” to “Spider-Man” – will also get an Honorary Heart, as will Britain’s Winstone and Sweden’s Skarsgard.

More than 250 films will be shown at the festival, which was founded by a group of movie enthusiasts towards the end of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.

Black comedy “Pavilion” by Bosnian film and theatre director Dino Mustafic will open the programme. It is the only Bosnian film made this year, reflecting the parlous state of the Balkan country’s industry and a lack of government support, the association of Bosnia’s film directors said this week.

Ukrainian film director Sergei Loznitsa will chair the festival jury. Nine co-productions from southern, central and eastern Europe will compete for the best feature film award, selector Elma Tataragic said.

The festival will show a selection of Arab cinematography in cooperation with the Doha Film Institute, including one showing footage of life in Gaza in the early 2000s.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Andrew Heavens)