MEET THE FILMMAKERS - BHFF 2025 GUESTS
New York City, April 2025 — The Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival (BHFF) is pleased to announce the special guests for its 21st annual event: Ado Hasanović, Srđan Vuletić, Uliks Fehmiu, Elma Tataragić, Luka Barajević, Valeriya Boyko and Amra Bakšić Čamo.
The special guests for the 2025 BHFF program are:
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ADO HASANOVIĆ
Q&A following the screening of My Father's Diaries
Ado Hasanović is a Bosnian director based in Rome. A participant of Berlinale Talents Sarajevo in 2008, he completed a program at the Norwegian Nansen Academy in 2010, specializing in interethnic dialogue, and in 2013 he graduated as a director from the Sarajevo Film Academy. He continued his studies at the prestigious Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, specializing in film directing, and at The Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, where he obtained a Master’s degree in Dramaturgy. Since 2015, Ado has been the Artistic Director of the Mediterranean Film Festival Passaggi d'Autore in Sant'Antioco, Sardinia, and a Short Film Selector at various European festivals. He is also the creator of Cortovisioni - How to Make a Short Film, a workshop where he shares his expertise on every phase of short film production, from the initial idea to post-production. In 2024, Ado founded the Silver Frame Film Festival in Srebrenica, aimed at honoring the city and its citizens, deeply affected by the traumas of the genocide, by providing a platform for artistic expression and resilience through cinema. His short films, such as The Angel of Srebrenica (2010), Mama (2013), Pink Elephant (2017) and Let There Be Colour (2020) have been selected and awarded in many international film festivals. His first documentary, My Father's Diaries, produced by Palomar (Italy) and Mediawan (France) premiered in 2024 at the Visions du Réel.
SRĐAN VULETIĆ
Q&A following the screening of Gym
Srđan Vuletić has directed and scripted award winning feature and short films: Summer in the Golden Valley (Rotterdam Film Festival - Tiger Award, Jury and FIPRESCI Award - Sofia Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Pusan Film festival, Anonimul Festival - Best script); It’s Hard to Be Nice (Sarajevo Film Festival - Best Actor Award, Mont Blanc Script Writing Prize Hamburg Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Bosnian entry for Academy Award); Hop, Skip & Jump (Berlinale - Best Short Film Panorama Award, Clermond Ferrand Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival - Tous Les Cinemas du Monde - Slovenia); 10 Minutes (script - European Film Academy Best Short Film). GYM is his third feature. He is currently in the post production of feature film Otter (Cannes Cinefondation Atelier 2021). He is also the creator and scriptwriter of the TV series: The Tender (sitcom) and Frust (high-end limited series). He is also a member of the European Film Academy.
ULIKS FEHMIU
Q&A following the screening of My Late Summer
Uliks Fehmiu graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the University of Arts in Belgrade. He has performed extensively in stage productions in Belgrade and New York and appeared in numerous films. He is one of the founders of West End Productions which is involved in film, theater, and TV production in Europe and the United States. Fehmiu is a Sarajevo Film Festival veteran with past appearances including Benjamin Filipović's feature Well Tempered Corpses that opened the Festival's 11th edition, award-winning Tomorrow Morning directed by Oleg Novković, the winner of 2008 Cinelink Award White White World also directed by Novković in which Fehmiu played the leading role and which he had also produced, as well as Redemption Street directed by Miroslav Terzić. At the 18th Sarajevo Film Festival, Fehmiu won the Heart of Sarajevo award for Best Actor for his role in Redemption Street. He currently lives in New York.
ELMA TATARAGIĆ
Q&A following the screening of BHFF Presents Student Shorts
Elma Tataragić is a screenwriter, professor of screenwriting, and selector for the Sarajevo Film Festival. She earned her degree in dramaturgy in Sarajevo in 2001, completed her Master’s in 2010, and obtained her PhD in 2014. She is a full professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in the Screenwriting Department and has served as Vice Dean for International Cooperation and Artistic-Scientific Research since 2019. She has been involved with the Sarajevo Film Festival since 1995, where she works as the selector for the main competition programs. Elma has published three books on screenwriting: The Style of the Screenplay (2011), Screenplay and Film Adaptation (2018), and Introduction to the Screenplay (2023). She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the “Ivica Matić” Award in 2008, 2016, 2019, and 2022, as well as the “Prof. Dr. Razija Lagumdžija” Award for her pedagogical work (2008, 2012, 2019, and 2024). Elma wrote the screenplays for the films Snow (2008) – Cannes Film Festival, When the Day Had No Name (2017) – Panorama Special Berlin Film Festival, I Remember (2017), God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya (2019) – Official Competition Berlin Film Festival, Stitches (2019) – Panorama Berlin Film Festival, The Happiest Man in the World (2022) – Venice Film Festival Horizons and Only When I Laugh (2023). She is also the screenwriter of the series I Know Your Breath (2023), which premiered in the official selection of the Venice Film Festival, as well as the series Smashing It. Elma is a member of the Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Film Academy, and she leads the Scenarnica screenwriting workshop in Slovenia. She is currently finishing the short film I Dream, I Lose (writer/director) and the feature film Mother (screenwriter) and is developing several new feature-length screenplays.
LUKA BARAJEVIĆ
Introducing At the Door of the House, Who Will Come Knocking?
Luka Barajević is a sound designer born in Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia (now Serbia), currently based in Berlin, Germany. He holds both BA and MA degrees in sound design from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. Over the past 15+ years, he has contributed to more than 170 short and feature-length fiction and documentary films, as well as television series, taking on roles such as sound recordist, sound editor, re-recording mixer, foley artist, and sound designer. His work has been featured at prestigious film festivals including the Berlinale, Cannes, Venice, Locarno, IDFA, Sheffield, and many others—where several of the films he collaborated on received notable awards and recognition.
VALERYA BOYKO
Introducing This was a Graffiti
Valeriya Boyko writes, makes movies and researches processes of group conflict. Born in Donetsk, which she left shortly before the onset of the war in 2014, Valeriya has lived across multiple countries and caught a serious obsession with Sarajevo. After stepping into the movie world through a happy accident - by befriending a stranger on the street, she started writing scripts and got involved in film production. This Was a Graffiti is her debut film.
AMRA BAKŠIĆ ČAMO
Amra Bakšić Čamo is a producer and co-founder of SCCA/pro.ba, an independent production company based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has been involved in the production and co-production of feature films, drama series, short films, and documentaries, collaborating with regional and international partners. From 2003 to 2023, she was Head of CineLink at the Sarajevo Film Festival. Since 2019, she has been one of the curators of the Torino Film Lab and has been a longtime collaborator with the Berlinale Co-Production Market. She teaches Producing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, where she has been a professor since 2010. Her production credits include Excursion (2023) by Una Gunjak (Locarno), Death in Sarajevo (2016) by Danis Tanović (Berlinale Grand Jury Prize), An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (2013) by Danis Tanović (Berlinale Grand Jury Prize, shortlisted for the Academy Awards), Father (2020) by Srdan Golubović (Berlinale), and The Happiest Man in the World (2022) by Teona Strugar Mitevska (Venice Film Festival). She is the creator, writer, and producer of the drama series The Hollow (2022, 2025 - 2 seasons) produced by SCCA/pro.ba for BH Content Lab.