Over 30 independent exhibitors from Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and FYR of Macedonia are in Sarajevo in order to attend the presentations of the 19 new regional films in the Avant Premiere Trailers section. In addition, according to the festival, distribution chains like Cinestar and Cineplexx and major distributors like Blitz film&video, Continental Film, MegaCom Film and Taramount Film are also represented in Sarajevo.

The films include some seven titles from Serbia, four from Croatia and films from Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as four new regional coproductions among which are Love Island by Jasmila Žbanić with Produkcija Živa (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) as Croatian coproducer and the omnibus Bridges of Sarajevo, produced at the initiative of Obala Art Center/Sarajevo City of Film and French production house Cinétévé in coproduction with partners from Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Bulgaria.

According to the festival, Avant Premiere has already become very popular among Balkan and regional producers present in Sarajevo who are hoping that the new initiative will become a major factor in discovering sales territories for their films. They support the festival’s official position “to create an equal position and status between distribution of regional films and Hollywood and European films among exhibitors, media and audience.”