Sarajevo's CineLink Industry Days hands top prizes to folk horror 'Wolf Days' and family drama 'The First Week of August'
Two films about families cracking under pressure — one through folk ritual, one through a single violent moment on a holiday island — took the top prizes at the 24th CineLink Industry Days, the pitching and works-in-progress marketplace held during the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival.
Emilija Gašić's folk horror Wolf Days won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, a cash prize of €20,000 ($23,000). Gašić's first feature, 78 Days, premiered in the Bright Futures section of the International Film Festival Rotterdam; Wolf Days was developed through the Torino Script Lab. The new project, produced by Serbia's Non-Aligned Films with co-producers Istok Films and Restart, follows a woman navigating menopause who turns to a folk healer and is drawn into rituals that grow increasingly absurd (Variety).
Filip Mojzeš's The First Week of August claimed the HBO Award in the Works in Progress strand, worth €30,000 ($35,000). The family drama, produced by Tamara Babun Zovko and Matija Drniković for Wolfgang&Dolly and Black Photon, is set during an idyllic island vacation that turns tumultuous when a mother's sudden physical outburst toward her 10-year-old son exposes hidden tensions (Variety).
Two further Works in Progress awards went to films from the wider region and beyond. The Post Republic Award, offering €30,000 ($35,000) in post-production services, went to Bojan Vuletić's The White Week, produced by Jelena Mitrović, Boris T. Matić, Lana Matić, Danijel Hočevar and Ivan Đurović for Film House Baš Čelik, Propeler Film, Vertigo and Artikulacija. The film follows an 11-year-old boy who exploits his brother's tragic death to fight his father and his community.
The Avanpost Media Award, also €30,000 ($35,000) in post-production services, went to Kazakh director Assel Aushakimova's Pay the Bill, produced by Assel Yerzhanova for Film Film Film. The story centres on a 65-year-old woman who receives an unexpected late-night phone call from a police officer and sets out to find her daughter.
Ukraine also featured in the co-production awards. Mamayi, from writer-director Oleksandr Roshchyn and producer Packgauz, won the Eurimages Special Co-Production Development Award of €20,000 ($23,000). Set in 2009, the film follows two TV reporters forced into a dirty election campaign for a pro-Russian candidate. Roshchyn, making his directorial debut, is known as the cinematographer of Stop-Zemlia, which won the Crystal Bear at the 2021 Berlinale, and of Timestamp, a contender for the Golden Bear at the 2025 Berlinale (Variety).
CineLink, held each August in Sarajevo, functions as a co-production market and post-production showcase: sales agents and buyers browse projects still seeking financing or finishing their final cut, and the prize money is designed to push those films closer to screens. The 24th edition handed out a total of €131,000 in cash prizes and €60,000 in kind across its strands (Sarajevo Times, Sarajevo Film Festival).
The winners span Serbia, Croatia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, a reminder that the pipeline feeding European art-house screens is wired through the same festival halls where these films first found their money.
