Sarajevo Film Festival has selected the final 16 projects of the CineLink Co-Production Market 2026 and introduced a €10,000 award.
The cash award will be presented to a CineLink Co-Production Market project by the Kosovo Cinematography Centre.
Projects include the return of two Bulgarian filmmakers to CineLink. Nadejda Koseva takes part with Fleur De Mar, about a woman in her 50s forced to undergo rehabilitation with Black Sea mud. Koseva’s previous feature The Trap was part of CineLink Work in Progress in 2022.
Ralitza Petrova returns with her third feature Peace, about the privileged wife of a weapons-testing range owner who comes out of a coma profoundly changed.
Petrova’s debut, Godless, was developed through the CineLink Co-Production Market 2015 and went on to win the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival, while her second film, Lust, was developed at CineLink in 2021 and presented at CineLink Work in Progress in 2024. It premiered at the Berlinale Forum earlier this year.
As previously announced, Slovenian filmmaker Urška Djukić Lecamus is taking part with Forbidden Fruit, a Slovenia-Greece co-production that follows a pregnant healer who, amid the Black Death, is accused of witchcraft. It is Lecamus’ follow-up to her 2025 festival favourite Little Trouble Girls, which played at Berlin, Tribeca, Karlovy Vary and Edinburgh. T
Two guest projects are also taking part through CineLink’s long-standing collaboration with the Doha Film Institute. The Peacock Queen is directed by Qatari animation duo Aisha Al-Jaidah and Kholood Al-Ali and follows 13 and eight-year-old siblings transported to a mythical world.
Madness And Honey Days is the new project by Iraqi filmmaker Ahmed Yassin Al-Darraji, whose debut feature, Hanging Gardens premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2022 and was then selected as Iraq’s submission for the Academy Awards. His latest follows a theatre actor who, after accidentally cursing President Saddam Hussein on stage, convinces a military court of his insanity to escape a death sentence.
The CineLink Drama lineup, which focuses on high-end TV, will showcase eight projects, including Karla Lulić and Jelena Mađarić’s Croatian-Finnish co-production Chasing The Clouds, about a game of truth or dare at a teenage party that goes terribly wrong.
“This final line-up brings together seven debut features and new projects by filmmakers whose work we have followed through CineLink over many years,” said Asja Krsmanović, head of CineLink. “Nine of the 16 projects are directed or co-directed by women, reflecting the strength and range of women filmmakers working across the territories represented in the selection.”
CineLink Co-Production Market
- The Peacock Queen (Qat) dirs. Kholoud AlAli, Aisha Al-Jaidah
- Madness And Honey Days (Iraq-Can-UK-Lux-Qat-Saudi) dir. Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji
- Fleur De Sel (Bul) dir. Nadejda Koseva
- Peace (Bul-Den) dir. Ralitza Petrova
- Fritz And Dobrila (Ser) dir. Goran Marković
Previously announced:
- Forbidden Fruit (Slovenia-Greece) dir. Urška Djukić Lecamus
- Hôtel Des Thermes (Austria-Fr) dirs. Maéva Ranaïvojaona, Georg Tiller
- How To Disappear In The Lake (Turkey) dir. Selcen Ergun
- Jellyfish Live Forever Until They’re Caught (Cro-Ser) dir. Nađa Petrović
- Koryo (Ser-Cro-Slovenia) dir. Mladen Kovačević
- Mamayi (Ukr) dir. Oleksandr Roshchyn
- The Metallic Sky Of Saturn (Az-Fr) dir. Azer Guliev
- The Taste Of The Peach (North Macedonia-Belg-Geo) dir. Elena Mikaberidze
- Vagabonds (Rom) dir. Vlad Buzăianu
- With Blessings On Your Way (UK-Bos & Her) dir. Kan Muftić
- Wolf Days (Ser-US-Cro) dir. Emilija Gašić
CineLink Drama
- Chasing The Clouds (Cro-Fin) dir. Karla Lulić
Previously announced:
- Chain Reaction (Slovenia) dir. Jaka Šuligoj
- Hedgehogs In The Haze (Bos & Her-Ser-Bul-Nor) dirs. Danis Tanović, Nermin Hamzagić
- Small Yugoslavia (North Macedonia-Belg)
- Stringers (Cro) dir. Danis Tanović
- The Valley (Turkey) dir. Özcan Alper
- The 9th Border (Ukr) dir. Valentin Shpakov
- You Can Always Come Back (Cro) creator-scr. Tena Gojić
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