European Film Academy Chief Matthijs Wouter Knol & Greek Filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari Join Emily Watson On Sarajevo Film Festival Jury
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- Emily Watson will preside over the Competition Program jury at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival (August 14-21, 2026), coming off playing Mary Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao's Hamnet and having just wrapped season 2 of HBO/Max's Dune: Prophecy.
- Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and Director of the European Film Academy since 2021, joins the jury after a 12-year Berlinale tenure leading Berlinale Talents and the European Film Market, and is an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the Academy's programming.
- Athina Rachel Tsangari, credited as a principal instigator of the Greek New Wave, joins the jury; her films Attenberg (Coppa Volpi winner at Venice) and Chevalier (BFI London Best Film) were both Greece's official Oscar submissions, and she has produced work for Yorgos Lanthimos and co-produced Richard Linklater's Before Midnight through her banner Haos Film.
- Igor Bezinović, a Croatian director-screenwriter, brings a European Film Award for Best Documentary won by Fiume o morte!, plus Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Adriatic Film & TV Awards.
- Sara Klimoska, a North Macedonian actress, joins after her third collaboration with Milcho Manchevski on Sister Brother Manhole Cover; she was named a European Shooting Star in 2021 and nominated for a Heart of Sarajevo award in 2022 for TV series Underneath.
Why it matters: The five-person jury pairs a two-time Oscar nominee and an Oscar-shortlisted Greek auteur with the head of Europe's flagship film academy and two Balkan-region talents — reinforcing Sarajevo's positioning as the rare A-list festival that places Southeastern European filmmakers on equal footing with Western European prestige. With Watson just off Dune: Prophecy and Tsangari's latest Harvest still cycling through post-Venice buzz, the festival locks in cross-generational star power before the August 14 opening.
