Bosnian director [pictured] scoops award that rewards a film project with the best box office potential submitted for development funding from Creative Europe’s MEDIA programme.

Danis Tanović has won the EU Prix MEDIA at the 67th Cannes Film Festival.

The Bosnian director will be presented with the prize, which rewards a writer and producer for the film project with the best box-office potential submitted for development funding from Creative Europe’s MEDIA programme, on May 17 by Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner responsible for education and culture.

Tanović shares the award with co-scriptwriter Predrag Kojovic and producer Amra Baksic Camo for What Are You Looking At?, centred on an exiled war hero who comes back to Sarajevo after 20 years to help his brother Jasmin who is involved in a conflict with Keke, the brother of the main mobster in town.

“Danis Tanović is one of the finest film-makers of his generation. His latest film project is exceptional, with a compelling script that exudes a powerful sense of cultural identity and dynamism,” commented Commissioner Vassiliou.

Tanović added: “In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country of few but nonetheless good films, it is almost impossible to produce a film without access to various European initiatives and funds. Creative Europe and its MEDIA sub-programme are essential for our film industry. It took a lot of lobbying with the authorities for our country to join MEDIA. The support we have received as well as this award proves our reasoning was right.”

The Prix MEDIA was awarded to Asghar Farhadi in 2012 and Thomas Vinterberg in 2013.